It's In My Genes (Wolverine x OC)
by aven91
Summary: As an old flame returns, Logan must win her heart all over again. With a dark secret she can't reveal, she must learn to trust Logan again. Rated M for sexual content.
1. Chapter 1

My name is Kathrene. Everyone calls me Kat. I'm old, but you couldn't tell just by looking at me. I'm over two hundred years old. Thanks to my cellular structure I never age. I can't age. Once I hit my prime at twenty five, I never got a day older. I am a mutant. I was one of the first. Over the years my mutations grew. I can control the four basic elements, earth, fire, water, and air. My mutant name is Elemental.

Many years ago, I met a man named Logan with a similar mutation to my own. He too hit his prime and never aged again. He and I became close friends; able to rely on each other like no other. Then one day, we became under attack by his father, Sabertooth. (yes, Sabertooth is originally Wolverine's father). I couldn't figure out what was going on, but he turned his attention to me and nearly killed me if Logan wouldn't have jumped in the way at the last moment.

"Kat, run!" Logan yelled.

"But I can't leave you!" I said. Logan bringing out his claws, turned and slashed them at me. Hurt, scared, and broken hearted that he attacked me, I ran. I never saw him again.

Years later I met two powerful mutants, Eric and Charles. Eric had a very unique power to where he could control metals with a magnetic force. Charles could read and manipulate minds. They were best friends and were both speaking of the same ideals, but one day, that all changed. Like many friends, they started to drift apart.

One day, they separated and Charles turned to me for assistance. I couldn't refuse his offer. I wanted him to succeed. He wanted to teach mutants to control their powers and open a school for gifted youngsters. Being over two hundred years old, I had accumulated vast amounts of money through very clever investments. And I was willing to put all of my money into this organization.

In return of my services, I told Charles about Logan and asked him to keep an eye on him for me if he was still alive. He agreed and wanted to know what was so special about this one mutant, but I told him that he would find out later down the road. I gave him access to my account which fully funded the institue. I told him if he ever needed anything he could contact me telepathically. Occasionally, he would, but it was never too long a visit.

I never saw Logan again. I didn't want to. What he did was unforgivable. He was supposed to be my friend. And he betrayed me.

I missed him on occasion. His sneers and the way he seemed to growl when I made fun of him and his smile though it was a rare sight. One day though, I would face him again. One day.


	2. Chapter 2

The day was warm, the sun was shining, no clouds were in sight. I brisk fall wind blew through the trees detaching the dead leaves from the branches. The town was alive with a town festival. Kiosks filled with trinkets and doodads lined the streets and banners attached them all. I could hear the children laughing as the were running around and I could hear the sound tests of a local live country band that was supposed to be playing tonight. A light music played over unseen speakers. Blow up slides and bounce houses and games were slowly started to emerge.

I was in the town of Bayville. I knew who was here, but I knew he wasn't going to come here. This wasn't his thing. Charles had contacted me telling me he wanted me to be close. I wasn't sure for what though, neither was he, but I had learned not to ignore his gut feelings.

I sat down on a bench that sat on a bank overlooking a river. Ducks and geese were starting to congregate for their journey south. Some of them started walking towards me wanting me to feed them.

"I don't have anything for you," I said to them. They honked and quacked furiously as if they understood and start nipping at my feet. I laughed and shooed them away. They waddled away still squawking.

"I see that you still don't like animals," I heard a familiar voice say.

"I like them just fine. They just don't like me because I didn't bring any food for them, Charles." He pulled up next to the bench I was sitting on with a bag of bread sitting in his lap. Sure enough the water fowl were all over him. We sat in silence feeding the ducks.

"Why'd you want me here?" I asked after the bag was empty. "I know it wasn't to help you with the ducks."

"No, not the ducks," he admitted. "The children." I looked over at him with a strange look on my face.

"I can't do that." I stood and began walking away from him.

"He thinks of you often, you know. He thinks you dead." I stopped dead in my tracks and sighed shoving my hands in my pockets.

"It should stay like that Charles."

"You're his friend."

"Was his friend," I corrected. I sighed. "Has he ever spoken of me?"

"No, but he has let me into his mind on occasion and it's always about you." I turned and faced him.

"Look, Chuck, you just don't understand. What he did..." I paused remembering that moment. "Can't be undone. It was like he didn't even care."

"What happened?" he asked politely. I knew he wasn't going to probe my mind if I didn't want him to.

"Ask him." And I turned and walked away. He didn't try anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the week, I stayed indoors. I was angry for no reason at all. At first, I thought I was angry at Charles, but soon realized that I was just making an excuse to be angry. But angry, I still was. I didn't want to see anyone, I didn't want to be around anyone.

I decided a hot shower would be something to take the edge off so I headed into the bathroom of the hotel I was staying in. I ran the water realizing that there was no hot water in this place so a nice hot bath would have to do instead. I filled the bathtub anf touched my finger into it concentrating on my fire element. The water was steaming in a matter of seconds.

I undressed and eased myself into the tub leaning my head back on a folded towel. I took a deep, relaxing breath and just sat there. No sooner than I got comfortable, Charles contacted me telepathically.

_'I need you at the institute now, Kat.'_ I groaned and got out of the tub leaving the water to be reheated when I got back. I arrived at the institute ten minutes later in my car.

I got out and walked in and the first person I saw was a teenager with bluish hair walking around carrying a book.

"All I want is some help with my homework guys! It's due tomorrow!" he yelled. A girl came through a wall. She was shorter than him with brown hair.

"It's not our fault you waited until the last minute to do it, Kurt!" she hissed pointing a finger in his face.

The only thing that went through my mind was, "Please don't let this be why he needed me."

"Don't worry it's not," Charles said emerging from a hallway to the left of the foyer. He had a worried smile on his face telling me he was about to drop some bad news on me that I really didn't want right now.

"Then why am I here?" I asked crossing my arms.

"Well, uh..." he paused for a moment finding the right words. "I'm kind of being held hostage." The two teenagers looked at him with wide eyes. They went into attack mode instantly ready to defend him at all costs. I narrowed my eyes.

"You don't look like you're a hostage." He swallowed. "Who's holding you hostage?"

"You're going to like me very much, but I told Logan you were still alive and he's holding me hostage until you arrived." I closed my eyes pinching the bridge of my nose and shook my head.

"I told you not to!" I hissed.

"Why?" I heard someone say from the top of the stairs. I looked up and saw Logan standing there with his arms crossed glaring down at me. Those eyes were just as hard as they were all those many years ago.

"Hello, Logan." He stomped down the stairs and stomped across the foyer and stood before me.

"Why did you tell him not to tell me you were still alive?" he snarled. I crossed my arms.

"You should remember that you don't intimidate me, Logan."

"WHY!?" he screamed. By this time more people had emerged to see what was going on. I sighed closing my eyes.

"I didn't know you thought I was dead," I admitted.

"You still knew I was here. You could have come." I sighed again.

"It's not that easy, Logan. What you did was unforgivable." He narrowed his eyes at me.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know full well what I'm talking about." He growled that familiar growl.

"That was a long time ago, Kat." He seemed to be calming down. He cracked a small smile. "I'm glad to know you're still alive." I looked up at him and narrowed my eyes. The hard eyes were gone. They were soft and happy. So different from what I remember. I had never seen a look like that in his eyes before.

"Maybe, but I'm not glad to see you," I said turning around. I looked back at Charles. "You're in some serious trouble, Chuck." And I left.

I was not ready to face him. I wasn't even sure what to say to him yet. What could you say to him?

"Who was that, Logan? An old girlfriend?" Kurt asked teleporting next to him.

"You could say that," he said walking out of the door and watched me leave. He got a whiff of something in the air. Something way too familiar. He growled in anger. "Sabertooth."


	4. Chapter 4

Not ready to go back to the hotel, knowing Logan would follow me, I just went for a drive. My thoughts were so jumbled with the past that I managed to make it to somewhere in the country before I came to. I stopped the car on the side of the road and got out. I walked to the front and sat down on the hood feeling the heat of the engine on my rump. I was forcing the moments of that dreary day out of my head. The moment when Logan was not there. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as the memories went away.

A breeze pushed through my hair as leaves surrounded me in their beautiful colors. I small smile touched my lips as I watched the countryside.

"Well, well, well, look who we got here." I wasn't sure what emotion touched me first, fear or terror. I looked across the street to see Sabertooth walking out of the woods. "I thought I had killed you years ago, Kat." I could hear a motorcycle in the distance. I knew we were going to fight, but it couldn't be until the motorcycle passed us or else the person riding it would end up dead. Sabertooth leaned his head back a little sniffing at the air. "I see you've been reunited with the pup." I guess it was Logan on the motorcycle. I stood facing him.

"What do you want, Creed?" He grinned.

"I want to see you bleed all over again. And this time, I'll make sure you're dead." I gulped as fear started taking over. I knew he was more than capable of ripping me limb from limb, but it wasn't his style. His style consisted of torture, pain, and a slow, slow death. I took a deep breath clearing my thoughts and emotions. I knew my powers weren't going to be at their strongest if I was scatterbrained.

Logan was approaching at an alarming speed.

"Might as well get this party started," Sabertooth said charging me. I took control of the wind and focused it all on Sabertooth blowing him back to where he started. Fireballs formed in my hands and I hurled them at him.

"You have to get me first!" I yelled. The fireballs hit him head on, but they did little damage. He charged me again and I ran away from the car to keep it from getting smashed.

It was a rental after all.

Like it matter much because Sabertooth picked it up and threw it at me with all his strength. I took control of the earth around me and brought it up in front of me like a barrier. The car smashed through it and hit me. I was buried under the rubble of my barrier. I stood up slowly and started throwing the pieces of rubble at him one by one as he charged me. He knocked them away like the were flies. I gave up on the earth and started conjuring the wind again to blow him back, but deep down I knew he was going to get to me before I did.

No sooner than he was going to hit me, someone else rammed into him in a blur. Logan had tackled him hard enough to make them both slide a good ten feet away from me. Logan jumped back next to me, bringing out his claws.

"What are you doing here?" I yelled at him.

"Later, we have more important business to take care of," he said charging Sabertooth. I looked around desperately for something to use to stop him with. Wind took to long to use on such a calm day, fire and earth didn't seem to faze him... I looked down into the ditch and saw there was a little water trickling down to a bigger stream somewhere in the area. I touched my finger into the water feeling where it was going and started pulling it to me, forming it into a ball.

"Logan!" I yelled as the ball was complete. "Watch your back!" He turned back and looked at me taking a blow in the face from Sabertooth knocking him back far enough out of my way. I hurled the giant water ball at him and enclosed him within it. I held it on him until he wasn't breathing anymore. I dropped him out of it and put the water back where it belonged. "This water is so polluted now." Logan scoffed.

"Look, Kat..."

"Not right now, Logan." He stopped. "Thank you. I don't think I could've done this without you." He stepped next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. Missing the comfort of being in his arms, I allowed them to stay there.

"You're welcome." We stood there for a moment before Logan spoke up. "You want a ride?" I scoffed.

"Please," I said walking over to the car. I reached in and tried to salvage my purse. "Man, and this was a rental too." I shook my head and followed Logan to his bike.

"Take me to my hotel room so I can grab my things. I'm not staying there anymore."

"Why not?" Logan asked putting on his helmet.

"I don't think he's dead, Logan." He contemplated this for a moment.

"You too, huh?" I nodded. He got on the bike then waited for me. Soon, we were back at my hotel and I grabbed my things and went back out.

"Where to?" Logan asked turning on the motorcycle.

"Your place," I said fastening my helmet.

"Good." I shook my head wrapping my arms around his waist and he took off in the direction of the institute.


	5. Chapter 5

Charles had agreed to let me stay under the condition I help with the children. As much as I really didn't want to deal with teenagers at the moment, I couldn't help it. I was safer here. Sabertooth knew I was still alive and I knew he was wanting to finish the job. I wasn't really sure if I was scared of him. If given enough time, I do believe that I could beat him. He would anger me enough to where my powers would become uncontrollable and I could level an entire mountain range, erupt a volcano, blow a city away, or drown it; possibly at the same time.

I had to keep my emotions in check or else something bad would happen and I couldn't have that. I had worked for far too long to get my emotions under control for Sabertooth of all people to get me angry.

I walked through the mansion after the kids left for school to get a real feel of the place. Upstairs, my room was at the end of the hall with Ororo's, Logan's, and Charles' room as was where all the adults slept. The children had to bunk up with each other until Charles could add on for additional students. At the moment, there were only a few students. Kurt, Rouge, Gene, Scott, and Kitty. Kurt was a blue furred boy with the ability to teleport. Rouge was a dark individual with the power to absorb the powers of other people along with memories and habits and use them for herself. Gene was a telepath along with a telekinetic. Scott had to wear protective eyewear at all times so he didn't blast everyone with a beam that was shot through his eyes. Kitty had the ability to walk through solid objects. Each of them were very powerful and were more than interested in learning more on controlling their powers.

I had explained to Charles that I needed to train them individually about their powers and help them control it better. It would be easier on me and them. I would leave it up to the other teachers to teach them how to fight as a team. My first student would be Rouge. She seemed so shut in, afraid to be around anyone even while protecting herself from them. I had thought a lot about how I was going to teach her to control her powers. But I figured at first she would have to learn to trust herself with her powers.

"Rouge, this weekend, don't schedule anything."

"Why?" she asked looking up from her book.

"Me and you are going on a weekend hike." She just looked at me weird.

That weekend, as I was packing everything up, she came in wearing pants, tennis shoes and a tank top covered by a see-through long sleeve shirt. I just stared at her shaking my head.

"What?" she asked crossing her arms.

"All I want you to wear is a tank top, shorts, a pair of socks and hiking boots and a pair of gloves."

"Uh, I don't know if anyone has told you about m..." I cut her off. "I know about your powers Rouge, but first, you need to learn to to trust yourself with your powers before you can learn to control them. Besides, it'll be nice to get a little bit of sunshine."

"But... what if..." I held up my hand to stop her.

"You can't base your life on a bunch of 'what if's'. You gotta live your life to the fullest or else you're going to be telling your cats about how you shoulda coulda woulda back in the day." She looked at me funny. She walked out of the room with what sounded like a 'fine' coming from her mouth, but it could've been a half dozen other things knowing someone like her.

We had left that day. I knew where there was a trail where we would spend a day and a half walking on the trail and a day and a half walking back. In that time, I would hope she would open up a little. We wouldn't have to worry about running into too many people along the way. Not many people are into nature that much anymore. We'd run into a couple people, but it would get rarer and rarer the further we made it into the woods.

We had arrived at the start of the trail by eight-thirty in the morning.

"Today's lesson," I said turning off the car and looking at her. She was sitting in the passenger seat nibbling on the thumb of her glove. She looked over at me. "Loosen up."


	6. Chapter 6

The day went on a little uneventful. We spoke about where we were from, what we did in the past, so on and so forth. This weekend was a wonderful weekend for a hike. It wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold. There wasn't a cloud in sight. The trail wound through the mountains along a river. We stopped at a waterfall to eat some lunch.

"So, what's the point of this training?" Rogue asked pulling a sandwich out of her backpack. I leaned up against a tree taking a drink from my water bottle.

"To get comfortable with your powers. Look at you. You're not covered by your protective clothing. You're able to walk around freely without having to worry about touching anyone. It feels good doesn't it?"

"Not really. I'm still a little nervous. What if I touch you?" I gave her a flat look.

"You shouldn't worry so much about that. You have to think, I know of your powers and I know what you're capable of. I know to be careful not to touch your skin to mine just as you do."

"So you're saying that I should be comfortable with everyone making an extra effort to avoid me," she said resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

"No, nothing like that. You need to accept who you are and not worry so much about it. You need to lighten up. Quit fearing your power or else you'll never learn to control it."

"Did you ever fear your powers?" I looked at her.

"Of course I did. I didn't what was going on with me, but I started getting used to it and started to get the hang of it. Granted my power isn't like yours in the least so it didn't take me as long to stop fearing it. But I believe one day, Rogue you'll be able to control your powers enough to where you can touch someone and not send them into a coma." She gave me a flat look and I winked at her.

We continued on our trip.

Around six o'clock that evening we stopped and ate dinner. Before we knew what had hit us, the sky turned black and rain poured thickly around us. We didn't even have enough time to set up our tent.

"We got to keep going. This isn't a very safe place to be right at the moment." We pushed forward unable to see two feet in front of us. We came to a very dangerous part of the trail where we started climbing up onto a cliff. "We need to be careful!"

We walked in single file across the thin trail. The river had already began to rise and turn muddy. I heard Rogue scream and I turned as quickly as I heard it. She had slipped and was falling off the cliff into the water. I fell to my stomach and grabbed her hand.

"It's okay, Rogue. I got you." She looked terrified. I started to pulled her up, but I started to slip off the cliff side as well. There was a tree just far enough away to hook my foot onto it so I did so. I started pulling her up again.

"My glove is coming off!" Rogue yelled in panic.

"It's okay, Rogue. I'm not going to let go." The glove started slipping slowly off. I knew what I was going to have to do. This wasn't going to be good at all. I lowered my hand down reaching for her wrist.

"Kat no!" she yelled at me.

"If I don't, you die!" I grabbed her wrist. It was a funny feeling. It felt like my very life energy was being drained from me. Memories flashed in my head uncontrollably. I felt my powers draining from me into her. I had to get her back up before I passed out. I knew it wouldn't be too much longer before that happened. I pulled her up, but I had no more left in me. The whole world went dark.


	7. Chapter 7

I woke up slowly taking in the area a little at a time. Machines were whirring and beeping. I thought I could hear voices, but they were very far off. I listened closely to the voices. There was three. They seemed so familiar to me, but the cobwebs hadn't completely cleared yet, but I strained. As they became more clear I found out that it was Logan, Charles, and Rogue.

"I don't understand all these memories. People are riding horses everywhere, and carried guns, and some of the places didn't have power." That was Rogue. She seemed pretty out of it.

"You must have picked up her memories out west back in the early 1800s. She spent a while out there," Logan said.

"But how can she be that old?"

"It's because of her regenerative abilities. They're not nearly as powerful as Logan's, but they seemed to do the trick."

"So, how old are you Logan?" By this time, I had come to completely. They were standing right outside the door. I was in the infirmary of the institute.

"You don't want to know, kid."

"How are you feeling, Kat?" Charles asked noticing that I was awake. They came into the room. Rouge was by the bed in no time.

"I hope I look as good as you when I'm your age," she said to me. She was wearing a plain t-shirt without that see through top over it. I grinned at her. "And thanks a lot. I owe you big time." She walked out of the room.

"She's a little overwhelmed by your memories, but she'll recover just fine. Just like you will, Kat." I nodded.

"At least she'll do better in history class." Charles grinned.

"I just want to ask you something," Charles said crossing his arms. I looked at him waiting for the answer. "How old are you, exactly?"

"You know better than to ask a lady her age. That's just rude."

"You don't remember, do you?" Logan asked a grin on his face. I looked up at him.

"Do you?" Logan went to say something, but he stopped actually thinking about it. I grinned as I sat up.

"Do you need anything?" Charles asked.

"Food. I'm starving." He nodded and wheeled his way out of the room. Logan sat down on a chair next to the bed. We stared at each other for a long while. He reached out and grabbed my hand. A small smile played at my lips.

"Logan, why didn't we ever..." I couldn't find the right words. He put his hand on the side of my face his thumb rubbing my on my cheek.

"We still could."

"It's too late, Logan. I wish it wasn't, but it's just too late." Logan grinned.

"Maybe for you," he whispered. He leaned over and kissed my cheek. It would've been my lips, but I moved my head away before he could.

After Logan left, Rogue came back in.

"I know why you're so mad at him. It was terrible what happened, but you can't blame him for it. It's not his fault," she said setting a tray of food down in front of me. I closed my eyes taking a deep breath.

"You wouldn't understand, Rogue. You just couldn't understand." She sighed.

"I understand that you love him."

"Go away."


	8. Chapter 8

After I had completely and was up and moving around, Rogue had stopped me in the hallway.

"Um... I was wondering if you could help me with something," she asked uneasy. I narrowed my eyes at her. She was still wearing a t-shirt and pants. She was starting to slowly come out of her shell around the mansion. Hopefully it wouldn't backfire. She was holding something behind her back. I wasn't sure what it was, but I had a feeling it was a school book. Something was telling me that was exactly what it was.

"What do you want?" I asked crossing my arms. She wouldn't look me in the eye at all.

"I was thinking, since you're so old and all... you'd know a lot about history because you know... you lived it... do you think you could help me with my report." I sighed wanting so bad to say no, but part of me wanted to know who it was on.

"What's it about?"

"The Salem Witch Trials. I saw you had memories of them..." I interrupted her. "That wasn't the Salem Witch Trials you got memories of. That was what happened when I accidentally showed someone my powers." She sighed.

"So you don't know anything about the Salem Witch Trials?" I shook my head no.

"Look up The Crucible. That's got everything you need to know for the most part. Key characters and the truth about what really happened. Good luck." I walked away from her. Knowing that she knew that made me really wonder how much of my memories she absorbed. I swallowed hard. I hope she didn't get the ones of me and Logan. I had to find the professor and quick.

I found him out back tending to the gardens surrounding the back of the mansion.

"Can I talk to you?" Charles nodded trimming back some rose bushes. "I need you to read Rogue's mind for me. I'm not sure how much she got from me and some of the things she doesn't need to know."

"You know I can't do that without her permission."

"They're my memories. I think I have a little bit more say in it than she does."

"I'm sorry, but it doesn't work that way."

"It better start," I said stepping closer to him.

"You know I don't take kindly to threats."

"And you know I don't take kindly to being told no!" I yelled. I heard screaming within the mansion. "That sounded like Rogue!" I took off running towards the mansion. I knew she was going to be around the library so that's exactly where I went. She was crouched in the corner of the library books scattered around her. She hand her hands on her head. Logan was trying to get near her, but she kept pushing him away screaming, "MONSTER! YOU'RE A MONSTER! GET AWAY FROM ME!"

I ran up beside Logan and put my hand on his should to get his attention.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, I walked into the room and she went nuts," Logan said.

"Why weren't you there, Logan!" Rogue screamed at him. "If you were there he would've lived!" My heart fell. I knew what she was doing. She was having a flashback of my memories. Bad ones.

"What is she talking about, Kat?" I shook my head. I looked over on one of the tables in the library and saw it had a satin table cloth on it. I pulled it off and wrapped it around Rogue so I could touch her. She rested her head on my chest crying her eyes out whispering that she was sorry it had to be like that. I shushed her quietly as I ran my fingers through her hair careful not to touch her skin.

"How do you live with it, Kat? How could you possibly? It's so terrible!" she sobbed. "How can you stand to look at him?" I shushed her again.

"What is she talking about?" Logan asked getting a little angrier with his words.

I looked at Rogue with a gentle smile.

"Rogue, I want you to try to forget about it. I know it's awful, but you must forget it. It's my memory to bare. Not yours." She wiped her tears away.

"But how?"

"The professor can take them away. I suggest you do it." She nodded and stood up. She glared at Logan as she passed him. Logan, confused, didn't even look at her. His eyes were on me. I knew he was angry with me. He knew she was having a flashback from one of my memories. He knew it had something to do with the grudge I had against him. I took a deep breath as I put the table cloth back on the table I removed it from a little too neatly trying to avoid this upcoming conversation I was about to have with Logan.

"What was she talking about, Kat? Why would she call me a monster?" I stared at him for a moment. I swallowed the oversized lump in my throat multiple times.

"Do you remember before Victor attacked us... That night when we got... close?" I asked turning my back on him. He took a step closer to me, but still kept his distance. He wasn't sure what he was going to hear next. He hummed a response letting me know he remembered. I took a deep breath before continuing. "I became pregnant." I heard Logan's breath catch. "When he attacked, I had just found out. When you tried to hit me, it broke my heart. I knew why you did it. I do. I understand and I forgive you."

"Then why...?" I stopped him. "That's not all," I whispered turning to face him. He narrowed his eyes at the tears flowing freely down my cheeks. He took another step forward. "Six months later, he found me. I tried to get away, Logan. I tried my hardest, but I couldn't. He caught me. He beat me nearly to death... but what he did..." I covered my mouth with my hand. "He held me down... and he ripped the baby from my body." I closed my eyes. "The baby was screaming in his hands. He seemed... mesmerized by the child at first, but then he got angry. He broke his neck right in front of me then threw it beside me." Logan grabbed me and wrapped his arms around me tightly.

He kissed the top of my head gently running his fingers through my hair.

"If you were there, you could've protected me, Logan. Our baby would've lived. We could've been a family." Logan took a deep breath hopefully in understanding. He knew why I held the grudge against him. Holding me tighter his whispered, "I promise on my life, I will never leave your side again." I slowly looked him in the eye. Tears seemed to be fighting their way to the rim of his eyes. I stood on the tips of my toes putting my lips to his. His taste had not changed at all in all these years. I didn't realized that I had missed it this much. I wrapped my arms around his neck. We broke the kiss and he leaned his forehead against mine. We stood in the library just holding each other for what seemed like hours before he left to check on Rogue.


	9. Chapter 9

That night, I laid in my bed, staring at the ceiling counting the little dots trying to bore myself to sleep, but it wasn't working. A storm was brewing outside so I stood out of my bed and walked over to the glass doors and opened them up. The curtain blew inwards licking my skin softly. I grinned at the softness of the fabric then stepped out on my balcony. I took a deep breath of the stormy night air and leaned my elbows on the banister.

I heard my bedroom door open slowly and someone step in. Just by the way the footsteps sounded I knew it was Logan. He walked onto the banister with me. He stood behind me wrapping his arms around me tightly. We stood there in silence watching the sky flash with lightning in the distance.

"You're different, do you know that?" I asked looking up at him. He looked down at me with a grin. I reached up and traced my fingers around his lips. He closed his eyes enjoying the sensation. "He looked just like you," I whispered. He opened saddened eyes to me. He pressed his lips to mine gently.

We looked out over the landscape again waiting for the storm to hit. The breeze turned into gusts before we decided to go back in. I sat on my bed turning on the bedside lamp and opened the drawer pulling out some paper and a pencil. I began to sketch something on the paper. Logan sat there patiently watching me as a drew the picture. My eyes flitted across the page along with the pencil. I used my finger to smudge some of the markings. About thirty minutes later I handed him the paper. Logan looked up at me then back down to the paper.

"He was beautiful wasn't he?" I asked hugging my knees. Logan's grin returned.

"You lied. He looked more like you." I grinned scooting next to him. Logan put the sketch on the bed and wrapped his arms around me pressing his lips to mine once more. I responded immediately. I sat up on my knees and wrapped my arms around his neck. I pushed him back on his back. His fingers trailed up the back of my shirt leaving a firey chill in its wake. I moaned and arched my back at his touch.

"I missed you," I whispered running my fingers through his hair. He kissed my lips then laid his head back on the bed. He stared into my eyes almost like he was trying to read my mind. He grabbed me and rolled over on top of me. He rested his head on my chest rubbing his cheek against my breast. I giggled as he did.

"So, Rogue said something today while she was having your flashbacks." My heart skipped a beat. Part of me knew exactly what he was going to say to me. He lifted his head searching my eyes for a continuance, but I guess he never found it because he said, "Forget it," and laid his head back down on my chest. I knew what it was then. I sighed and stared at the ceiling. Soon enough sleep found me and Logan both and we slept in each other's arms for the rest of the night.


	10. Chapter 10

Days seemed to pass on like a dream. Nothing really happened around the mansion of great importance. I trained the students individually with their powers so they could learn to control them more soundly. Rogue was still a challenge because she couldn't trust herself enough to use her powers. I was sure with enough training she could make contact with someone one day. I knew that was what she had wanted for a long, long time. She had opened up to me about her powers. About the memories of the people she touched. She didn't like having their memories inside her head all the time. She had her own memories and they were enough. I couldn't blame here. She couldn't remember my memories because the professor blocked them off. I was sure they would resurface again one day. Hopefully she would handle it a little better than she did the last time. I felt sorry for her, but I could never tell her that knowing she would get angry and push me away.

Just like Rogue, Scott couldn't trust himself with his powers. I couldn't blame him either considering he was packing a nuke behind each lens. I was sure he could level this entire mansion with just one swipe of his head. Scott and Rogue had become the two that I mostly worked with. They seemed the most dangerous. I knew deep in my heart that both of them would one day trust themselves enough to where they wouldn't have to worry about hurting those around them. But until then they needed to protect themselves and everyone around them.

I sat down at the breakfast table listening to the mornings conversations. Kitty was freaking out about a test in Algebra today as she crammed her head in the book trying to study. Kurt was talking about how wonderful the sausage was. I grabbed a plate and loaded some bacon and sausage and pancakes on it. No more children had come to the institute in a while. I wondered if it was because all the rooms were filled. I knew that Kitty and Rogue shared a room together, but Kurt had his own room. I thought about how I could build onto the institute a little more so everyone could have their own rooms. I thought about where I could put the addition. Before I realized it, i was off in deep space biting my nails not listening to anyone. I snapped to and looked around the room. Everyone was staring at me.

"Sorry, I kinda went off there for a second." I started eating my food quietly.

"So, where are you from, Kat?" Kurt asked looking at me. I gave him a weird look.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, I'm from Germany, Evan is from New York, where are you from?" I grinned.

"I'm from the Great Plains. I was born into a Nomad tribe many years ago. They followed their food everywhere. That was before the Europeans invaded my lands." Everyone just stared at me.

"You're not that old, now seriously, where are you from?" Kurt asked. I just stared at him.

"I think I was born in Colorado. I could be wrong. It was back when Louisiana went all the way to the Rockies." After I had explained to them how old I actually was to where they would believe me, I had sent them off to school. I rubbed my temples.

"Kids," I murmured to myself walking to my room. Logan stopped me in the hallway.

"Come with me," he said. He grabbed my hand and walked me into his room. He shut the door and locked it before turning on me. He grabbed me forcing his lips to mine. I moaned in his lips. He lifted up my shirt quickly and threw it beside us on the floor. He pulled me to him as I felt his excitement against me. He unhooked my bra and pulled it off my shoulders gently letting it fall between us. His hands trailed the edges of my breasts sending chills throughout my body. He put his hands on my bottom and lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist to keep me in place. His mouth found my nipples and he nipped and ran his tongue over them seductively. I leaned my head back and moaned.

He walked to the bed and laid me across it gently and laid on top of me. I tugged at his shirt trying to lift it up, but he had to sit up to let me pull it up. I threw it behind us on the floor beside the bed. I kissed his neck wrapping my arms under his shoulders to pull me up. He ran his fingers through my hair. I could feel his excitement growing on me. He reached down and started undoing my pants. Once they were undone, he pulled them off along with my underwear. He grabbed my legs and put them over his shoulders as he lowered his head between my legs and started teasing me with his tongue. His tongue barely touched me before I started moaning in pleasure.

His tongue slipped inside of me and started moving around in circles. I gripped the blankets on his bed leaning my head back moaning his name. I tried to buck my hips, but his grip tightened on my thighs to keep me still. After he had his fun with me he put my legs down and came back up to me. He kissed my lips roughly shoving his tongue into my mouth. I could taste myself on his tongue, but that didn't matter to me in the least.

"I want you, Logan," I whispered in his ear. He sat up as I started doing his belt and pants and started lowering them along with his boxers. I brushed my fingertips along his hardened member slowly. Logan let out a sigh. I wrapped my lips around him and started bobbing my head up and down his shaft slowly. Logan grabbed the hair on the back of my head trying to push to make me go faster, but I wouldn't let him. I started rubbing my tongue on the top of his member making him grunt in pleasure.

"Oh god," he whispered. I tried to take as much of him as I could into my mouth, but I could only make it about half way before I gagged. Something about that made me even more excited. I stopped what I was doing and laid back on the bed laying my hands above my head and spreading my legs telling him I was more than ready. He laid down on top of me sliding into me slowly as he did so. Unable to hold it back, my whole body tensed as I gasped in pleasure. I clawed at his back as he put the last of him inside of me. I laid there breathless looking into his eyes. He lowered his head and kissed me again as he started thrusting inside of me.

"Oh my god, Logan," I whispered clawing his back. He grinned down at me as his thrusts became quicker. I let out little gasps with each one he did. He grabbed my leg and put it over his shoulder holding onto my thigh. He sat up on his knees and started thrusting inside of me quickly. I clawed at his arms arching my back. I felt his lips on my leg as his thrusts became slower. I wasn't liking it one bit so I rolled over on top of him and started bouncing on top of him quickly. He grabbed my hips gritting his teeth in pleasure. I leaned my head back, grabbing his hands and leading them up to my breasts. He ran his fingers over my nipples. I stopped long enough to whisper in his ear, "You wanna know something?" He hummed rubbing my thighs with his hands. "I remember how to make you say my name." He gave me a sly look. I wrapped my arms around his neck and started moving my hips up and down on him. He squeezed my sides tightly groaning. He rested his head on the inside of my neck. I could feel his hot breath on my body as I moved on him quickly. I didn't stop until he started saying my name.

He rolled over back on top of me and start thrusting into me roughly. My whole body began to tense up as I felt my orgasm coming on. I dug my nails into his back leaving welts that didn't stay long. I started chanting his name with each thrust as I hit my orgasm. It wasn't soon after that he spilled his seeds within me. He laid on top of me for a while then rolled off me. I rolled on my side and rested my hand on his chest with my head on his shoulder. We laid there catching our breaths in a comfortable silence. Logan was the first to speak.

"I couldn't wait anymore," he whispered. We both let out something like a laugh though we both were still too winded to do so.

"I'm glad you couldn't," I whispered looking up at him. We took a nap afterwards.


	11. Chapter 11

After school, I decided I wanted to do a training exercise with the children. I had turned it into a sort of "King of the Hill" kind of game. I stood in one spot and they had to maneuver their way around the obstacles to get to me, then they had to get me out of the ring I was standing in. It was about ten feet in diameter with a mote of water circling it. I could only create fire. I had to harness the wind and the earth and water; hence the mote. It wouldn't be so hard to get me out of it if they performed in the right way. This was my way of knowing how they worked together as a team so I could train them farther alongside Logan. I had to know their weaknesses and the strengths so I could help them.

Scott, as always, took the lead. I had him pegged for a natural born leader. He carried himself in the way a leader should. He spoke the way a leader should and everyone was sure to follow his orders. I knew this was going to be a little difficult just with the assortment of their abilities. I had to watch mainly for the sneakiness of Kurt's teleportation and Kitty's ability to move through solid objects. Not to mention Gene's telekinesis or she could throw me out of the ring with a snap of her fingers.

"Remember guy, any means necessary!" I yelled through the trees of the training area of the yard. A continuous breeze pushed itself all around me and I took a deep breath causing it to become stronger. "This is going to be fun," I said to myself. Logan, Ororo and Charles stood off in the distance watching the session. I could hear machines in the distance coming to life as they started advancing towards me. I stood there patiently picking at some dirt that had gotten underneath my nail somehow.

I heard a couple explosions telling me one of two things. One; they blew up the machines and two; they reached the part with the explosives. I could hear Scott shouting orders to the other X-Men in the distance. I could also see flashes of bright red as Scott used his powers.

Kurt appeared to my left just outside the circle. He smiled and waved at me. I knew he was getting ready to do a flanking maneuver with Kitty, but I went ahead and went along with it.

"A little off target don't you think?" I felt something grab my right hand and I looked down. Kitty had come up through the ground. She was about up to her waist in the earth when I looked down, but she had completely emerged. She smiled a cute smile and waved at me. "Do you honestly think it's going to be that easy?" I asked her. She blinked a little taken aback. I harnessed the breeze around me and turned it into a huge gust of wind and directed it on her. She let me go and flew backwards a good twenty feet. I gently lowered her not wanting to hurt her. I heard Kurt disappear and heard him reappear behind me. I felt his arms go around me.

I jumped knowing he was getting ready to take me outside of the circle. A strange feeling came over me then I was just outside the circle. I looked back at Kurt. He had just noticed that I wasn't touching the ground. A slight panic came over him, I could see it in his eyes.

"Oh darn, and so close too," I said sweetly. I hit his shin with the back of my heel as hard as I could. He released me and a gust of wind came in between us allowing me to land safely back inside the circle and blow Kurt away from me. "You're putting Logan to shame here guys!" I yelled. I looked back at Logan who glared at me as he crossed his arms. That's when I noticed that Kurt and Kitty had disappeared. I narrowed my eyes scanning the area.

I heard something whistle like an arrow and I turned around and saw Evan and Kitty standing there. Evan had shot his wooden spikes at me. I stomped my foot making a wall of earth come up to block it. I brought it back down and grinned. Water came out of the mote and flew at them. It wrapped around their ankles. Kitty, unsure if she could even use her powers with water, allowed me to take her. I brought them to me and touched the tip of my finger to each of their throats.

"You're dead," I said and shrugged my shoulders. I let the water drop to the ground. They sulked as they walked away towards the others watching. Suddenly, I was floating. I couldn't figure out why for a moment because I wasn't using my powers and that's when I realized that Gene was using hers on me. I looked around trying to locate her, but she was nowhere to be seen. I knew she was in the trees so I focused all my power on the trees and moved the earth around them. The trees separated down the middle to the sides. The remainder of the students were just standing there dumbfounded. Gene was so shocked she lost her hold on me and dropped me.

I harnessed the water again and grabbed all of their ankles. Kurt managed to grab Scott's hand and teleport out of it. I brought everyone else to me and touched their necks.

"Sorry guys." They all walked back to the others. "Two left," I said to myself. "Come out, come out, where ever you are!" I sang. I crossed my arms after a while. "Come on! I'm getting bored over here!" I heard Kurt appear above me. I looked up and saw Scott getting ready to take his visor off. I knelt down and formed a ball of earth around me at the last second. I heard the beams slam into the earth. I knew it was wearing the rock away so I focused the earth below me to rise up and connect itself to the top of the wall for extra support. When he stopped, I dropped the earth around me and stood up. By the time he had finished he had pushed me down a good ten feet. I looked around at the size of the crater he had created.

"Impressive!" I said admiring Scott's power. I harnessed the earth once more and lifted it to where it was level again. I pointed my fingers out and held them out at an angle. I turned in a circle creating a line around me where the circle once was. The mote was gone now. Out of nowhere, I felt something slam into me. I was picked up. It had hit me so hard that I seen stars. I was confused at what was happening so I didn't have enough time to react to the fact that I was now falling towards the ground. I landed hard on my side making even more stars appear in my vision. I shook my head clearing them away as Scott held out his hand to help me up. I was standing barely an inch outside of the circle. I threw my head back and laughed.

"Rule number one of Logan's training; never let your guard down," Scott said. I grinned. I looked over at Logan who seemed to be proud of his words.

"Good job, Scoot," I said looking around for Kurt. "Where's Kurt?" I asked. Scott laughed nervously.

"He knocked himself out when we landed." I laughed.

"Let's go get him."


	12. Chapter 12

The next couple days, everyone was going through intensive training. I had Scott wanting to become stronger so he was pushing his team to the limits. I knew they weren't going to like him very much, but they would still have enough respect for him to follow him without question. He knew what he was doing and I think the children knew this.

One night, Charles had picked up Sabretooth on Cerebro and told everyone that they had to find him and stop him before he did whatever it was he was going to do. He said he could be found at a recreational park. The park itself was pretty big. It was at least 200 acres of nothing but paths, random workout stations and a river where you could go fishing. We landing the jet in a clearing far in the back so no one saw us landing. The last thing we needed was someone taking pictures and sending it into the papers. We've had too many close encounters of being exposed already with the children alone.

Logan and I stepped off the jet first. We were the only adults in the mansion at the time, Ororo had went on a little trip down to Africa for a couple weeks. Logan sniffed the air trying to catch his scent. Everyone waited patiently for him and when we caught it, we set off in the direction it was coming from. My heart was pounding in my chest. I couldn't tell if it was nervousness, fear, or adrenaline or some weird mixture of all three. Logan stopped sniffing the air and got a disgusted look on his face.

"What's the Brotherhood doing here too?" he asked himself.

"Who is it?" Kitty asked standing behind us.

"Right now I just smell Slime Ball. His scent is covering up everyone else's if they're here."

"Toad," the children said in disgust. I had never met this mutant, but he really didn't sound too pleasant especially with a name like "Toad". We continued on with our little journey. Something about this didn't seem right. Logan was going in a straight line towards Sabretooth. He was waiting for us. This had trap written all over it in several different languages. This wasn't going to end well.

The ground beneath us began to tremble. Logan looked at me.

"It's not me!" I hissed nearly losing my balance.

"That's because it's Avalanche!" Kurt said pointing through the trees. I could see him trying his best to use his powers. His powers were weak compared to what they could be if he was trained properly. Something told me he didn't even train himself. The trees around us began to sway as their roots were becoming dislodged under the ground. They were going to fall down on top of us if we weren't careful. I held my hands at my sides facing this "Avalanche". I held my hands out a little and closed my fists tightly. The ground beneath us stopped shaking immediately. We could hear Avalanche panicking in the distance.

"Get him," I said looking at the kids. They were off in a flurry heading straight towards him. He ran off knowing he couldn't do anything in protect himself. I sat there and shook my head in disappointment. "He has such a wonderful power." Logan put his hand on my shoulder.

"We can't get them all, Darlin'." I grinned looking up at him. I leaned my should up against his side letting his arm find its way around my shoulders. We waited a good five minutes for the children to come back, but when we saw a flash of red light coming from the direction of where they ran we took off running towards them. We came to a small clearing where they were fighting multiple people. Scott saw us and screamed, "We'll hold them off. Go stop Sabretooth." Logan grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the battle. I wanted to stay and help them, but Logan reassured me that they could handle themselves.

We hurried to find Sabretooth. Logan was closing in on the scent. I knew he wasn't going to be too far from the others. We soon came to another clearing that looked perfect to reenact a Civil War battle. It was completely surrounded by tress. The terrain was slightly rolling hills with a couple boulder sized stones in random areas. And right in the middle of it all Sabretooth was standing waiting on us. He had his arms crossed over his chest with a grin on his face. Logan growled deep within his throat. I glanced at him. There was a fire burning in his eyes that I don't recall ever seeing in his eyes.

"You're going to have to wait in line, Sweetheart," Sabretooth said pointing his finger at me. "I want to take care of The Runt first. Then it'll be your turn." I was getting ready to tell him to shove off, but Logan put his hand on my shoulder nodding his head in agreement. I protested.

"He and I have some unfinished business. I'm going to kill that mother fucker." He brushed his fingers across my cheek. I heard the steel rubbing skin. He took off running towards Sabretooth. I stood on the sidelines watching them fight each other. Logan wasn't giving Sabretooth a chance to fight back. Never once in my life had I seen Logan fight like this. Anger was fueling him and then some. Sometime during the fight, the children showed up.

"Why aren't you in there helping him?" Scott said.

"He wanted to do this by himself," I said in awe. We stood there and watched as Logan beat Sabretooth down with all his might. It ended with Logan retracting his claws, uppercutting Sabretooth and bringing out his claws again making them go through the bottom of his chin up through his head. Sabretooth fell to the ground defeated. I grinned to myself relieved that he was gone though I knew he would heal and come back for more. Just because that's who he was.

Logan walked away proudly. He came up to me and wrapped his arms around me holding me close. I could hear the girls behind us giggling. I wrapped my arms around his waist allowing him to hold me close. I took a deep breath taking in his smell. Sweat, adrenaline, power and another certain musk that I couldn't place filled my airways sending chills down my back.

"I should've ripped that babies' heart out in front of both of you!" Sabretooth yelled behind us. I knew he was going to heal, but I didn't know this quickly. Anger burned through my veins. Rage filled my heart. Hurricane force winds blew around us. Smaller trees uprooted and flew across the clearing.

"Kat no!" Logan yelled. He held me tighter. Nothing could undo what Sabretooth had unleashed. Not even Logan.

"What's going on?" Scott yelled over the wind.

"You need to get out of here!" Logan yelled looking at them. I heated my body forcing Logan to release me. Steam lifted off his arms.

"No we need to stop her!" Rogue yelled. Logan stepped away from me as fire engulfed my entire body.

"There is no stopping her," he breathed. I ran towards Sabretooth who was now fully recovered. I punched him in the face sending him flying across the clearing. I took control of the earth and brought up a huge chunk and forced it into a ball dropping it on top of him. I ran towards him again. He was trying to regain his footing by the time I got to him. I brought the earth up putting it around my body in a full suit of rock armor and slammed right into him hard enough to shatter the rock around my shoulder. I grabbed his ankle and twisted it. I could hear the bones snapping in multiple places in his leg.

I picked my foot up and stomped it on the ground bringing earth around it thickly turning it into a wrecking ball. I kicked him in the side breaking several of his ribs at once. He was screaming in pain. I stomped it on his chest shattering the bones. I dropped the earth around my foot and took control of the wind and picked him up. Earth came up around my right hand into the shape of a sword. I forced it together to where it was so smooth it glittered, so sharp it could cut you just by looking at it. I forced it through his heart and broke it off inside of him. He tried to scream, but the pain wasn't allowing him to.

Fire engulfed my right leg as I released him from the wind and kicked him across the face sending him flying. I saw a large metal ball coming from the sky as it got closer to the ground it began to open. Sabretooth hurried inside and it flew off so fast I couldn't tell which way it went. My anger spiked and I screamed in sheer rage. I wasn't sure what had happened after that. Everything suddenly became black. I later woke up in Logan's arms on the jet. I couldn't find the energy to speak and soon my world became black again.


	13. Chapter 13

I woke up in my bed, Logan sitting next to the bed. He was holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Memories flashed in my head of an explosion, but that was about it. I tried racking my brain for memories after I blacked out, but nothing was coming to mind. I looked at Logan again. I knew I couldn't observe him to see if I had attacked him because he would've already been healed. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes again. I felt the blankets on top of me being readjusted as if Logan didn't like that it wasn't covering that area of my skin.

"So what's Garfield up to this week?" I whispered opening my eyes at him. He grinned at me running his fingers through my hair.

"The usual." I grinned back. Logan lowered his head and placed his lips against mine so gently that I could barely tell he was kissing me. I wanted to sit up, but a sharp pain went through my entire body so fast that I had lost my breath. That's when I remembered that the last time I had lost it like that, I laid there in the midst of the rubble that was Mt. St. Helens for days before I could get enough strength to even crawl out of there. I had killed a lot of life on that day. It would have been more, but I had been angry many days before that which was causing that volcano to erupt in the first place. Most of the people were evacuated for their own safety. The death toll could've been in the thousands possibly even more. Of course it was in the thousand if you wanted to consider the wildlife.

"I didn't hurt anyone did I?" Logan had a hard look on his face for a moment before shaking his head no.

"You could have though if we weren't there. Those "King of the Hill" training sessions really paid off," he said leaning his elbows on the bed.

"Why do you think I was teaching them?" He didn't look me in the eye. He seemed to be searching his brain for something to say to me, but nothing was coming up. I raised my hand painfully and placed my hand on the side of his face. He slowly looked at me. "What is it, Logan?"

"Magneto saved his butt at the last second. He's probably still alive." A knock came to the door and it opened. Rogue walked in slowly and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"How are you feeling?" she asked staring at me. I nodded my head slowly with a smile. I tried sitting up again, but I had to have some help from Logan and Rogue. The leaned me up against the head board. Logan put a couple pillows behind me to make me a little more comfortable. I waited for the pain to ease before I got really comfortable. I looked to Rogue narrowing my eyes.

"You didn't absorb my powers to knock me out did you, Rogue?" I whispered staring at her. She shook her head no.

"Logan wouldn't let me. I'm sure I cou..." I interrupted her in an instant.

"Never touch me when I'm in that state. The power can kill you," I snapped at her. She flinched staring at the bed. She fiddled with a pieces of lint she had somehow found on the blanket. I sighed. "Do you remember when you asked me if I was afraid of my powers?" She nodded. "I can't control them in that state. To say I'm afraid of them is an understatement. When I can control them, there's nothing to worry about, but like that... well, you seen it." She nodded slowly.

Another knock came at the door and it slowly opened. Charles came through with an older gentleman behind him. Logan shot up bringing out his claws.

"Logan, he's here to talk. Nothing more." I narrowed my eyes at the man. He looked so familiar to me, but I just couldn't figure it out. When he stood next to the bed and looked in my eyes, I knew exactly who it was.

"Eric!" I gasped. "Wow, you look good." He grinned.

"The years have been kind to you as well, Kat." He reached down and grabbed my hand. Logan huffed leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "I want you to know that Sabretooth was acting on his own. I had no idea what he was doing. I hope you bare no ill will towards me." I grinned gripping his hand.

"I know he wasn't. This was personal. Though I do hold a little ill will towards you, my friend." He gave me a confused look. "Why would you have him helping you?" He nodded in understanding.

"He is a good soldier, that is my defense." I grinned at him. "I just wanted to come check up on you and see if you were alright." I nodded to him. After that, he took his leave. Logan looked at me questionably, but I smiled at him and gripped his hand tightly.

"That was weird," Rogue said looking at me. I looked at her.

"I was friends with him and Charles before this all went downhill." Part of me wondered how he managed to stay so young looking after all these years. Nothing about this was right. I looked at Charles. There was no way Eric managed to look that young through regular means. Something was up. I looked at Logan narrowing my eyes. Something about this was very wrong.


	14. Chapter 14

That night, I laid in bed with Logan sitting at the end of it, my feet in his lap. He gently pressed his finger against them easing my sore muscles one press at a time. I just watched him as he massaged me. Strands of hair had fallen into his eyes, but he didn't seem to mind. His eyes were focused on my feet as he squeezed every inch of me. His powerful chest rose and fell in such a study rhythm you'd think he was sleeping. His powerful arms tensed ever so slightly as he squeezed then relaxing when he stopped. I snuggled painfully better into my pillows with a painful then relaxing sigh. Logan looked up at me and grinned. He did that a lot anymore and it made him look so handsome.

"What are you looking at?" he asked narrowing his eyes. I shrugged my shoulders grunting a little in pain. He crawled up to me and laid down on the pillows next to me. He started massaging my thighs. I could feel my eyes wanting to roll back into the back of my head so I closed my eyes and grinned. Logan was so good at this. I would've never thought it in a million years. Considering his more than true reputation of being a total hard ass. The kids dreaded the days they had to train with him. They normally ended up enjoying it in some way or another after I stepped in, but Logan was really hard on them. I knew he just wanted them to be able to protect themselves as a group, but throwing them in the fire pit right off doesn't help them at all. I would never tell Logan this solely for the fact that it worked somehow.

"You want to know something?" I whispered raising my hand to his hair running my fingers through his hair slowly. His hair was so smooth to the touch. My fingers twisted in his hair. I knew he loved his hair being messed with. He never admitted it to me, but he always seemed to be more relaxed when I did. His eyes were closed a content grin on his face. He hummed wanting me to continue. "You would've made a wonderful father." He opened pained eyes to me and smiled.

"You know, I could still," he hinted with a wink. It immediately my heart ripped in half. I quickly smiled to hide it. He raised and kissed my lips gently. I put my hand on his shoulders twisting my body more towards him. His kisses slowly trailed to my neck and I looked away from the whole situation with a worried look on my face. He stopped kissing me and rested his chin on my shoulder. I looked at him with a weird look on my face.

"You want to know something?" he asked me. I hummed just like he did. "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." I narrowed my eyes at him. I was flattered, but seriously, this was coming from Logan. Logan didn't say beautiful unless he was talking about a motorcycle.

"Who are you and what have you done with my man?" He chuckled. It was a sound I was still growing accustomed to. It made him sound so human. We just sat there and stared into each other's eyes. My heart slowly began to beat itself way up into the back of my throat as a blush worked its way to me cheeks. He narrowed his eyes at me, but still said nothing.

"What?" I asked finally. He was searching my eyes for something, but I didn't know what it could be. It made me a little nervous. He touched his lips to mine, but didn't kiss me. He slowly rubbed them across my lips back and forth. His lips were so soft. Not able to hold himself back anymore, he kissed my lips. I kissed him back without question. Forgetting my pain, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled myself closer to him. His hand rested on my hip squeezing gently. His tongue brushed my lips making me moan. I parted my lips letting him in to explore my mouth. Jolts of pleasure shot through my body as a fire burned in my stomach. He bit my lip gently pulling away from me. My hands flew up to his face pulling him to me again. He chuckled again rolling on top of me. He kissed my neck as his fingers found the bottom of my shirt and tickled the skin underneath.

Suddenly remembering the pain as I arched my back, Logan shot off my body saying he was sorry repeatedly.

"Don't worry, Logan. I'll be better soon enough." He grinned at me and kissed my lips gently before resting his head on the pillow next to my own. We fell asleep next to each other.

The next morning I woke up feeling wonderful. Logan had already gotten up and left the room. I didn't think much of it and got out of bed surprisingly not feeling any pain whatsoever. I stretched my arms over my head as I walked to the door. I opened it walking out into the hallway having to dodge Kitty and Kurt running towards the main living area.

_Must be Friday_, I said to myself. I knew it had to be about ten o'clock in the morning right about now. I walked through the mansion. I found my way to the main living area to see all the kids sitting around the tv watching a movie.

"Good morning, everyone," I said waving my hand to them. They didn't even bother looking back at me. I huffed putting my hands on my hips. I walked closer to them and bent over them.

"Hello!" Once again, they didn't even move. "What is this, some kind of joke?" I said to them crossing my arms around my chest. "Okay fine, if you don't answer me, I'll put you through such a hard training that you'll be begging Logan to train you again." Shockingly, they still didn't move.

"That actor is so dreamy!" Kitty said nearly swooning out of her seat. My eyes widened.

_What the hell is going on? _I asked myself. I walked through the mansion looking for Logan. If anyone would answer me in this mansion, it would be him. At least he cared about me enough to answer me. I found him in the kitchen piling some breakfast on a plate, then sitting it on a platter with a glass of orange juice.

"Look at you being a servant," I said crossing my arms. "It's sweet, but I'm better now. I can get my own breakfast." He picked up the tray and carried it out of the room. I narrowed my eyes. Why wouldn't he answer me? I'm right here, aren't I? ... Aren't I? I looked down at my hands. They seemed real enough. I followed after Logan quickly. Maybe it wasn't for me. Maybe someone else was sick or something and he was taking care of them as well as me. I ran through my thoughts. I knew it couldn't be any of the kids because they were all accounted for in the living area of the mansion. I think Ororo was still in Africa unless she had gotten back sometime while I was asleep, but I doubted that because she would've come to check up on me more than once. It had to be Charles. Charles couldn't be sick. I had never even seen him with a cold let alone to so sick he could control his wheelchair with his mind. Not to mention he'd be too stubborn to tell anyone he was sick.

No one was bed rest except for me. I didn't understand any of it. Logan had made it to my bedroom then opened the door. My heart pounded in my ears.

"I brought you some breakfast, Kat," he said.

"But I'm right here, Logan!" I said as a matter of fact.

"Kat?" Logan said. I could hear the mattress have extra weight on it. Slowly I walked to the door and the sight before me could've killed me. I was in bed. I was laying right there. But I was right here. Standing outside my own door. I looked down at my hands again. They seemed okay. "Kat?" Logan whispered shaking my shoulder gently. My hands started shaking. Tears swelled in my eyes. Logan shot up out of bed and screamed for Charles through the mansion. I heard footstep from all over the mansion. Logan kept screaming for Charles until he made his way into the bedroom. He had to dodge all of the children who had accumulated around the door. I stared at my hands as tears fell like waterfalls down my face. "She won't wake up, Charles," Logan said standing beside the bed.

"Like, maybe she's just tired, Logan," Kitty said from the doorway. Logan crossed his arms.

"Trust me, she'd wake up for food."

"Yeah, her eating even outmatches mine!" Kurt said.

"Oh god," I whispered. "I'm dead."


	15. Chapter 15

Panic shot through my body quickly as the sudden realization of death went through my mind. I went over to Logan slowly. The look in his eyes told me he was pained to see me like this. I figured something more would be done by now with my body. Charles was reading my mind, but I wasn't really sure why. If I was dead, then there was no mind to be read. "Maybe I'm a ghost," I thought to myself. The look on Charles face became more concentrated. I ran my fingers up Logan's arm. Goose bumps showed up on his skin as he rubbed them looking me dead in the face. He narrowed his eyes looking back at Charles.

A devious grin went over my face as I stepped behind Logan. I touched my finger to his lower spine and ran it up slowly. Logan shivered and turned around. He narrowed his eyes as they darted back and forth. He turned back to Charles.

"What's happening in there?" he asked. Charles leaned back in his chair raking through his mind on how to put it.

"She's not in there, but there are traces."

"It because I'm dead, moron. My soul just hasn't completely left my body," I said touching Logan's other arm. He rubbed it and looked. Charles narrowed his eyes looking at Logan.

"Are you alright?" he asked. Logan shook his head no.

"Something keeps touching me." Charles' face softened.

"Do you know what astral projection is?" he asked Logan. I stopped looking at him. I knew what astral projection was. I had never attempted it because it made me nervous. I wasn't even sure if it were possible though there had been multiple cases of it happening over the years. Astral projection was the controlled leaving of your soul from your body to wonder the world as a ghost. You could possibly enter people's dreams and have conversations with them. It was a very dangerous event to do because it was quite possible that you couldn't find your body again and you would slip into a coma until your spirit returned. If it returned.

"Yeah, I know what it is. Why would you bring something like that up?"

"Because I believe that's what Kat has done." Logan looked down at me laying in the bed.

"So you think that Kat has forced her soul to leave her body?" Logan asked crossing his arms. Charles shook his head.

"I don't think she meant to. I think there might be something more going on here." Logan shrugged looking down at me again.

"What have you gotten yourself into now?"

"I don't know, I just went to sleep." Charles narrowed his eyes looking around the room.

"She's in here. I just heard her. It was faint, but I heard what she said." Logan looked around the room as if searching for me. "She said she just went to sleep. I'm sure she's just as confused as we are."

"She probably thinks she's dead." I laughed slapping Logan on the back. He froze for a moment before loosening up.

"You know me so well." Charles grinned at Logan hearing my comment.

"So, let me get this straight," Scott said from the doorway. "Kat's a ghost right now?"

"Pretty much," Charles said.

"Oh great. Now she's going to mess with us."

"I didn't even think about it. Thanks for the idea Scott." Charles chuckled.

"I see that Burning Sky has fallen into the spirit realm." All the children standing at the door screamed and jumped into the room. At the door stood and stereotypical Native American. He wore the deep skin pants with the fringe hanging off the sides of the legs. He wore a deer skin vest over top of a chest piece made of bone. He wore no shoes. He had a beaded handband around his head with different kinds of bird feathers in it. His skin was a deep copper tone. His muscles were well toned. His hair was thick and as black as coal and it stretched to his lower back. He stood proudly nearly filling the doorway with him body. The girls seemed automatically infatuated with this man.

"Hunting Wolf?" Logan and I asked at the same time. Finally I was saved. If anyone could help me, it was Hunting Wolf.

**Author's Note: Sorry about all the dialogue. I had to make it last as long as I could so I could introduce Hunting Wolf and leave you with a cliffhanger. Much love readers. **


	16. Chapter 16

Everyone was sitting around the dining room table talking to Hunting Wolf, trying to understand what he was saying. Logan and Charles understood it immediately, but the kids for some reason was being a little slow on the matter.

"Okay, so what you're saying is that Kat was blessed by the gods," Jean said slowly. Hunting Wolf nodded his head patiently. I was standing behind Logan tapping my foot annoyingly on the ground. It upset me that they were talking about me like I wasn't even there. Because I was. They just didn't realize it. "And there's more than one person like her on the planet that has been blessed by the gods." Hunting Wolf nodded once more. "And those blessed by the gods can control the four elements..."

"Five," Hunting Wolf interrupted.

"But there's four elements," Jean argued. "Earth, wind, fire, and water." Hunting Wolf sighed a little in irritation.

"Some cultures believe there is a fifth," Charles butted in. "And that is the spirit." Jean and the others nodded accepting this fact.

"So, she can become, like, a ghost anytime she wants to?" Kitty asked crossing her arms.

"Like I really wanted to," I said my irritation growing more and more. Hunting Wolf chuckled.

"Be patient Burning Sky, we'll cut down to business shortly." All eyes were on Hunting Wolf. He sat there messing with his fingers staring directly at me.

"You mean to tell me that you could see me this entire time and you didn't say anything!" I hissed walking over to Hunting Wolf's side.

"Yes. This entire time," he said a grin on his face. "Could you imagine how I must look sitting here talking to air?" I glared at him.

"Really ridiculous," Evan said. Charles gave him a look and he lowered his head in defeat. I started screaming at Hunting Wolf. I couldn't even tell what I was saying. All I know that I was glad that the children couldn't hear me because there were some very select words coming out of my mouth. Hunting Wolf winced at some of the words, but he allowed me to finish what I had to say no less. I balled up my fist and slammed it down on the table saying, "Are you even listening to me?" Then the whole room became quite. The table shook under the hit. I looked at Hunting Wolf questioning what just happened. He grinned nodding his head.

"You're becoming stronger and stronger in this state as we speak. Before you know it, you'll be able to manifest as a spirit." I growled.

"I want to manifest back into my own body thank you very much."

"Under one condition," he said pointing in my celestial face. I nodded quickly. "You come back with me to the tribe and we'll work on this new found power of yours with the elders."

"How long will it take?" I asked looking at Logan. Hunting Wolf's eyes shifted to Logan as well.

"That depends entirely up to you." I gulped. I lowered my head my eyes still on Logan. I went over and put my hand on his shoulder. Logan's eyes shot down to his shoulder. He knew I was there. I had messed with him too much for him not to know it was me.

"I really don't have a choice do I?" I whispered. Hunting Wolf shook his head.

"The Elders command it." I closed my eyes.

"Very well," I whispered releasing Logan's shoulder. "The sooner I leave the sooner I get back." Hunting Wolf nodded standing up. No one followed after him except for me. We walked through the halls to my room. I stood beside the bed next to him staring down at my body. I sighed. "Get on with it." Hunting Wolf bent next to the bed and whispered something in my ear. I could her it. Every word of it. It was in our native tongue. A bright flash of light blinded my vision then everything went dark.

I gasped for air opening my eyes. I looked around. I was laying in my bed. I sat up slowly. The aches were gone. I got out of bed looking at Hunting Wolf.

"Let me say goodbye before we leave." I gathered a few things in a backpack knowing that I would need to travel light. I took a deep breath walking out into the hallway. I made my way to the foyer where Logan was standing with his arms crossed. He had an angry look on his face. I knew he understood why I had to leave, but that didn't make him any less angry. The other children knew I was leaving, but I wondered if they even cared. Maybe they didn't realize that it would be immediately. Hunting Wolf and I couldn't afford for this to happen again. I had to get my new found power under control or else I could slip into the spirit world and never find my way back to my body.

Logan looked at me and smiled. All the anger was gone in his eyes. I walked straight to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. I took a deep breath memorizing his scent. I didn't know how long I was going to be gone. Now that I was with Logan again after so long, I didn't want to leave again. I didn't want to put him through that again.

"I love you, Logan," I whispered. His grip tightened on me. I looked up at him. His fingers brushed my hair out of my face before he kissed me. He moved his lips disparately against mine. We broke the kiss slowly.

"I love you," he whispered. "I always have." Tears found their way to my eyes. I wrapped my arms around his neck kissing him again.

"Ew you two. Really?" Rogue said. We broke the kiss looking at her. I was very proud of Rogue. She was now wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Everyone had gotten used to her wearing such things and were starting to get more comfortable around her. Her confidence was growing more and more each day. "I guess you're leaving." She didn't sound very enthused about this. I grinned at her.

"I'll be back before you know it, Rogue. Don't worry." She grinned at me tugging at her bangs.

"I wasn't worrying." I looked up at Logan who was also grinning. Hunting Wolf put his hand on my shoulder and led me out of the front door. Logan and Rogue stood next to each other watching us leave. When our feet touched solid earth, we disappeared like a phantom.

"Will she be back?" Rogue asked looking up at Logan. Logan nodded his head grinning.

"Yeah, sooner or later."


	17. Chapter 17

...Six Months Later...

I stood in front of the rubble that was the mansion. I wasn't sure what had happened, but something triggered the Defcon 4 security system. My hand covered my face unsure of what to make of all this. Everything that I had worked for and all the money I had put into this place was destroyed. Gone in a matter of minutes. There were no signs of life anywhere. I prayed that everyone had made it out before it had went into total lock down.

I took a deep breath searching through the rubble for anything. If they had any sense in them they would've made their way into cerebro. That would be the smartest thing to do. It was nearly indestructible. I was sure that Eric and Charles built it that way for that very reason. I had finally made it to cerebro, but there was no one in there, just a bunch of rubble. It had stayed pretty much in tact to much of my satisfaction, but not seeing anyone made me fear the worst.

Running my hand over my face again, I turned to look at the surrounding area. Someone had to have made it out because there was small craters in the ground leading straight to the gate telling me that someone had made a b-line for the gate. I noticed tire marks all over the lawn. I wasn't sure what to make of those unless there was a party going on of some sort when it happened, but part of me doubted it.

Something bad was going on. I could feel it deep down in my gut. I decided the best way to find everyone was to get into contact with Charles. If anyone knew exactly what was going on, it was him. Touching my finger tips to my temples I tried to focus on Charles.

_Charles, can you hear me?_ Nothing. _Charles? What has happened here? _Still nothing. I tried one more time. _Charles? You need to answer me. i know you can hear me._ But still there was nothing. Worry and fear washed over my body suddenly. I took a few deep breaths calming my nerves enough to where I could put my new found power to use. I would use the astral projection to find out where all the children were hoping that all of them were alright.

Sitting on a flat part of land and crossed my legs focusing on my energy. They had taught me everything that I needed to know while I was away so that I could reenter my body without a chant. It came in handy, but I wasn't expecting it to come in handy this quickly. But this way I could find them in a matter of minutes as opposed to years of searching. They could be anywhere by now. I took a deep breath again as I felt myself leaving my own body. I stood up turning around to make sure it had worked. Glad that it did, I took off in a blast searching first the surrounding area then spreading out from there. Within minutes I found the majority of the children hiding about ten miles away from the mansion in a cave. I took off towards my body as quickly as possible so I could get to them.

I joined with my body and took control of the wind around me making it nearly break the sound barrier around me. I allowed it to take me straight towards them. I was there in minutes. Landing softly into the cave all the children I recognized came forward to hug me more than happy to see me. Some of the other kids I did not recognize, but I was soon introduced.

"Where is everyone else?" I asked shifting my eyes between them. They exchanged looks.

"Well, Auntie O and Mr. Mccoy are talking to senate about mutants and Rogue and Logan are getting supplies in town. After that, I'm not sure." I lowered my head.

"What happened?" I asked grabbing Evan's shoulders. "What happened at the mansion?"

"Everything went to chaos all the sudden. Everyone made it out okay, but mutants have been exposed and we're public enemy #1 right now. It's all just so chaotic," Evan admitted. Sorrow and regret panged in my chest. If I had never left, would this have happened? Would I have been able to stop it? They continued to tell me what had happened in my absence. By the time they were done, I just sat there for a second letting it all sink in.

"What the hell, does the whole world fall apart when I'm not around?" They all laughed. It sounded good to hear them laugh. It seemed like they needed it. I looked to Scott who was just standing there.

"I'm proud of you, Scott. You handled yourself well in a very tragic situation and saved a lot of lives."

"I just reacted," he said scratching the back of his head. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"That's all it takes, Scott." He grinned. "I'm proud of all of you." I stopped, hearing something in the distance. And was that... a motorcycle? I gulped. "Guys, get ready. It's about to get ugly."


	18. Chapter 18

We all dove out of the way as Rogue and Logan came barreling into the cave on Logan's motorcycle and crashed into a television made of ice that I had not seen before. How it got there was beyond me. And was that... and ice sculpture of Kitty? Logan stood up glaring at Rogue until his eyes fell on me. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they sparkled. I gave him a gentle smile taking a step toward him. I wanted so bad to be in his arms, to kiss his lips, to just... touch him and breathe him in, but that would have to wait considering there were three attack helicopters at the entrance to the hideout. They threw the typical ultimatum at us. You know the one, surrender or we'll be forced to use force. I had been alive for centuries and they still couldn't come up with a better one. I mentally prepared myself for a fight, knowing we weren't going to surrender. God knows where these men would take us. And I for one was not willing to become an experiment.

But to my surprise, Scott stood in front stopping Logan from an all out assault. The teenager known as Bobby formed a very thick ice wall in front of us. I guess that explained where the ice sculptures came from. It was very impressive work from what I could make out of the shattered remains. My thoughts were jerked back to Logan and Scott. They were up in each other's faces. I had to tap into my earth powers as the helicopters decided it was time they used force. The entire cave shook and I stabilized it as much as I could. That rumble was deep. I couldn't tell, but at least I knew it wouldn't crash down on top of us.

"If we attack them, they won't see it as self defense," Scott argued with Logan. "They'll blame us, and then it would have solved nothing." Logan snarled at him.

"You defyin' me, boy?"

"You and Kat trained us, Logan. And you know what? We're good," Scott said turning around releasing a controlled beam of red energy blowing up multiple bogies coming our way. "Real good." Pride swelled in my chest. And as much as Logan wouldn't like this, but Scott was right. We couldn't fight these men. Not only did they not know what they were getting themselves into, it wouldn't set a good example on regular people when a bunch of teenagers took a few helicopters out of the air without breaking a sweat. We had to show that we weren't the bad guys, but at the same time, we had to let them know there were bad mutants just like there are bad regular people. And we had to show them that we were the ones to take down the bad guys. I knew this wasn't going to end until something really bad happened that not even the military couldn't handle, but I wasn't sure when that was going to be. If only I would've come home sooner, but no, I had to wait a couple more days because I still had my doubts. Logan stomped off in a rage and picked up his downed motorcycle. Putting on his helmet, he looked at me.

"You coming or what?"

"He's right, Logan." He snarled, kick started it, then took off. I watched as he disappeared in the trees. I prayed that none of the helicopters would go after him.

"You didn't have to stay," Scott said putting his hand on my shoulder. Still staring at where Logan disappeared, I whispered, "And he didn't have to go." Our moment was cut short by another barrage of missiles hitting the area around the opening of the cave. They were just trying to scare us out. An immense pressure forced itself down on top of me as more of the hillside came loose and tried to come down on top of us.

"This mountain is getting really heavy really fast. We need to get out of here without hurting them. Kurt and Kitty, I need you to get up there and disarm their weapon systems so they'll stop shooting. Jean, you and Rogue make your way to the jet, once inside the jet I want you to land the helicopters safely once their engines are cut. Then I want you to bend the blades so they can't fly after us."

"How are their engines going to stall?" Evan asked looking at me. I grinned at him and winked.

"Everyone else, by any means necessary I want you to stop those missiles. Are we clear?" Everyone nodded ready to go. "Scott?" He looked at me. "Take us out." He was the leader of this group; I was just a teacher. He had made a wise decision and I was proud of him. I made the plan because no one was speaking up. This was the quickest way I could think of to get ourselves to safety. Scott led us out. The plan worked wonderful. Evan, Bobby, and Scott shot down the missiles while Rogue and Jean made their way to the jet. Kurt and Kitty took their weapon systems offline. I stood there watching over the children as I waited for my part in the plan to come. The plan was being executed without fault. No one was deviating. Everyone was sticking to their jobs. This was how a team operated. Logan and I really did do a good job. Kurt and Kitty appeared beside me in a sulfur smelling smoke.

"Alright, guys, get in the jet and keep the engine running!" I said. I harnessed the wind around the blades. I started turning it backwards to its rotation. Hopefully this would stall it out. This was harder than I made it seemed. I was harnessing the wind around three different areas that was probably spinning at a velocity to hover a car in it. Within a thirty second time, I had at least slowed the wind down enough to stall the engines.

"Jean now!" I darted for the jet. Once on, I watched as Jean turned the blades up. There was no way in hell they were going to be following us. "Take to the skies, Mr. Summers!" I yelled up to the front. Just like that, we were gone and it seemed to me everyone took a deep breath together. Jean quickly found the channel where Ororo and a man the children called Mr. Mccoy talked to congress on the matter of mutants. It seemed that Ororo was beginning to get through to them until something was whispered in the speakers ear by a secretary.

"Oh really, then let's see it!" he yelled pointing to a huge overhead television screen hanging on the wall. A video of Juggernaut came onto the screen. What was he doing loose? This was good at all. The children told me that the professor was missing and now his half brother had showed up. I knew this wasn't a coincidence.

"We've got to get there now," I said looking at Scott. All the children looked more than worried. And for a good reason too. Juggernaut didn't come by his name by chance. He was a force to be reckoned with and that's no joke.

"But without the professor, how can we stop him?" Scott asked looking at me.

"Scott, listen, if not us, then who? We're the only ones who stand half a chance against someone like him. We need to get there now, or innocent people will get hurt or worse." That was all it took and we were on our way.


	19. Chapter 19

Juggernaut. A very powerful mutant. One of the most powerful I had ever seen in my life. His strength was unbelievable. His size even more so. He was Charles half brother. His momentum was what made him dangerous. Once you got him started, it was impossible to stop him. He wore a special kind of helmet made out of the same material that Magneto had used to create his own helmet to block out Charles' psychic abilities. Charles was the only one who could take him down. I knew that Charles had kept him in a facility that kept him in a forced comatose state for everyone's protection. With Charles currently missing, this was going to be a very difficult task, but I had faith in the children. I was sure we'd find a way without harming anyone. I knew that Juggernaut's release was connected to Charles' disappearance, but who in their right mind would release such a monster?

The children had faced Juggernaut before, but they had Charles with him to help. They knew how powerful he was and what he was capable of. It made them more than nervous to know that Charles wasn't going to be there to use his psychic powers to force him into submission, but I reassured them with what we were going to need to do. Of course we were going to have to get his helmet off first. That was the easy part. I sat down next to Rogue on the jet.

"I'm going to ask you something, Rogue. I understand why you would say no, if you did, but I want to ask you to do something." She looked at me, half expecting what I was going to ask. "If we can't stop him, which I'm sure we probably won't, you're going to be our only chance. If we get you within touching distance, can you absorb his powers?" I knew that Rogue hated to absorb the powers of anyone. Their memories and attitudes flooded into her, but she also absorbed their powers and was able to use them properly with their memories and knowledge of their powers she also took. I really didn't blame her for hating it so much. I'm sure it got crowded in her head every once in a while. She gripped the edge of her seat staring at the floor of the jet.

"You're the first person who has ever asked me whether or not I wanted to use my powers," she whispered looking at me. It seemed to have touched her in an emotional way. I couldn't believe that no one had ever asked her. They knew she hated it.

"You told me that you hated it. I don't blame you. You've tried explaining to me what it's like. You have absorbed my powers once, but that's not even close to what it feels like for you isn't it?" She shook her head no tugging at her hair. She couldn't look me in the eye. "I don't understand the torment you must go through, Rogue, and I couldn't, wouldn't expect you to do this..." She interrupted me.

"I'll do whatever it takes to stop him. He's going to hurt a lot of people just because he can. He's angry at the world for no reason at all." Her eyes saddened as she withdrew within herself as she normally did once she started rambling.

"It seems that you can relate in some way, Rogue."

"Maybe, but I have a reason. He's just mad because he can be. I'm mad because everyone gets to be normal but me. I hate it. They sit there and complain about the stupidest things and normally it's for the same thing that I'm wanting so bad." She looked to the front of the jet where everyone was standing talking about the upcoming fight. They weren't listening to our conversation, which was a good thing because I'm sure we wouldn't be having this conversation if they were. As much as I didn't like it, Rogue was a very shut in girl. It had taken me a long time to get her to trust me enough for her to open up to me a little. It made me feel good that she would come to me when she needed to talk to someone. I was a little worried that she would stop since I was gone for so long, but apparently, it relieved her to see my return.

"You're not going to be mad forever, Rogue. You can count on it." She grinned looking up at me.

"You sound so sure." I put my hand on her shoulder forcing her to lean towards me a little.

"It's because I am. One day, you're not going to have a reason to be mad. You can count on it." We looked up when as everyone made their way back to where we were to plan out our course of action.

I thought about it before I continued. "Kurt, Kitty, I'm going to leave it up to you to get his helmet off. You guys have a better chance of getting away from him than the rest of us. And we don't want anyone to be hurt. We need everyone we can get right now, but I'm afraid it's just , once his helmet is off..."

Everyone shifted uneasily at the sight of me. I looked nervous to them. It wasn't good when the most powerful person with you was nervous.

"Well?" Scott coaxed.

"What can I say? Go for the head. And Scott, if it gets bad enough, I want you to unleash everything you have on him. It may or may not work, but it's a risk we're going to have to take. If that doesn't work, it's going to be up to Rogue. She's the only one who's going to be able to match his powers by touching him."

"What about you? What are you going to do?" Bobby asked crossing his arms.

"I'm going to be the first line of defense. You got a problem with that?" He shook his head no. He wasn't sure who I was since he came here after I had left to train my new found power. I knew he didn't trust me. The first time he had ever met me I started barking orders like I ran the he was just going to have to get over it because right now, we had bigger fish to fry. I looked around at everyone. This wasn't going to be easy.

I really wished that Logan was there with me.


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the long wait on this update. I can only give you an excuse. Where the chapters are currently weaving in with the actual episodes of X-Men: Evolution, I have been watching them on Netflix and for some reason, my computer won't allow me on Netflix. So I tried Youtube and it won't even let me on there. So I'm doing this chapter to the best of my memory and if it's not perfect, I do apologize, so I'm making this one longer than I normally do as a way of making it up to my readers. Thanks guys for staying with me.**

We came up to a dam where Juggernaut was currently battling it out with a couple military choppers like the ones we had faced before. I knew they didn't stand a chance against this monster, and it would be left to us to bail them out of trouble. I told Kurt to get ready to teleport the men out of the helicopters and get them to a safe place and he was nearly too late as Juggernaut grabbed one of the helicopters and threw it into the other one. There was an explosion as they hit and they fell into the water below.

We landed the jet and set out to stop Juggernaut, or at least attempt. But I had faith in my students and I knew they would succeed. We all stood and watched as the Juggernaut rejoiced at his victory against the machines. He called into the sky that he was The Unstoppable Juggernaut. Part of me believed him. I looked to Kurt and Kitty.

"Guys, use what you learned on your King of the Hill training." They grinned knowing exactly what I was talking about. They took off towards Juggernaut. After a few steps, Kurt disappeared and Kitty sank through the concrete heading towards Juggernaut. Kurt appeared on his back and unlatched one of his buckles and disappeared. Juggernaut's attention was on Kurt now, giving Kitty enough time to go up and unlatch another one. This process kept going until all of them were undone. I looked to Scott and nodded. Giving a short blast of his red laser directly to his face, the helmet went flying off the dam.

"You know what to do if I fail guys," I said moving my eyes to each of them. They all nodded. I took off running towards Juggernaut as he was screaming in anger at us. If he had half the smarts of his half brother we would all be in even more trouble. But it is as they say, "All bronze, no brains". I leaped in the air, some five feet away from the giant of a man's reach, and kicked him across the face. He grabbed my leg before I could reach safety.

"Damn!" I screamed in my head as he threw me off the edge of the dam. Taking control of the wind, thankful for the wind around dams, I focused it around me and lifted myself back onto the dam's walkway. Juggernaut was cursing at the kids daring them to come at him. I tore a chunk of earth out of the mountain side and hurled it at the back of his head. It hit him full force, shattering into pieces. He didn't even take a step forward. He turned back towards me, fire in his eyes. I glared at him.

"Pick on somebody your own size," I growled. He grinned at the challenge and quickly accepted as he charged me. Knowing I wasn't going to be able to fight him face to face, I quickly weighed my options. We were on a walk way, too narrow for much movement, though enough for me to dodge. I could keep fighting him off just to wear him down, then send the kids in to take him out, but I knew that I would end up tiring way before he did. He didn't come by his name lightly.

I dodged to the left, rolling as I done so. I had to keep out of his hands. If he got his hands on me, I was done for certain. Forming a fireball in my hand, I hurled it his way blasting him on the back. He turned as quick as his giant form would allow. I already had a bolder of a rock hovering above me. He laughed at me. It seriously humored him that I was trying so hard to stop him. And the fact that he was laughing at me pissed me off. I hurled the rock as hard as I could, but he smashed right through it.

Before I could react, he had his arms wrapped around my whole body, pinning my arms at my sides. Helpless, I just took the pain in stride. At first, it wasn't much pain, nothing I couldn't handle, but soon enough, I could feel bones snapping. I couldn't tell which ones as the pain radiated all throughout my body. I screamed in pain. Unable to focus on any of my powers, I was defenseless. I heard the battle cries of the children behind me as they all rushed in to rescue me. I was dropped at Juggernaut's feet. I felt someone grab my wrist. I looked up to see Kitty half way submerged in the concrete of the dam.

She smiled at me and pulled me within the stone. It was a strange sight and feeling moving through the stone. It felt like silk tickling my skin. I couldn't feel the stone moving through me, but I could feel me moving through it. We reemerged a good distance away from the fight. I just looked at her with wide eyes. Her smile grew at me.

"I know right? It takes some getting used to, but once you do it's like, so wonderful!" She rushed back into the fight after that. She grabbed the Juggernaut's ankles pulling into the stone up to his waist. Everyone stood back for a moment, hoping that would be enough to stop him, but he smashed the cement around him. Everyone was soon back into the fight. I, as I sat slowly healing my broken bones, watched with worry as my students took him on. They weren't winning, but they weren't losing. I seen no other choice.

"Scott, now!" I screamed to them. Everyone, except Scott, jumped back away from the battle. Scott removed his visor hitting Juggernaut with everything he had. Juggernaut slid back several feet, shielding his face from the blast. To my fear, he started advancing on Scott. I stood with the help of Rogue and Jean.

"Kitty, you need to get Rogue close enough to use her powers. We need all of his attention on Scott so she can get to his skin." I placed my hand on Rogue's shoulder. "You know what you have to do. You'll be able to stop him." She nodded, but still looked nervous. "You'll be fine. I won't let him hurt you." It did little to reassure her, but I would use all of my power to protect her. Kitty grabbed her hand and gave her a reassuring smile. The sank through the ground.

By this time, Juggernaut had gripped Scott's face. He held him up, as if showing him to the world, screaming the he was the Almighty Juggernaut. Rogue jumped up and wrapped her legs around his neck placing her naked hand on his forehead. It lasted for a few short seconds, but it was enough to weaken him and Rogue to absorb his powers. He finally knocked her off. He turned and was getting ready to punch her, but she blocked it as if it were nothing. Considering she was now just as powerful as the Juggernaut, it was nothing to her. She brought him down with ease, picked him up over her head and threw him off the dam. Bobby came up next to her and blasted him with his ice power, freezing him in a block of ice. He fell to the bottom of the river below.

We all took a deep breath as we had won. We stood around as the search party came and swept the river for the fallen villain, but they found nothing. Even if they did not find him, he was no longer a threat to the people below and that was all that mattered. Rogue, feeling a sudden exhaustion, collapsed to be caught by Scott.

"I got a lot of his mind and... and... I know where the professor is!" Not even giving anyone time to react, we rushed to the jet and headed for the facility where the Juggernaut was supposed to be contained. Why was he there? The children had proceeded to tell me that it was Mystique who had activated Defcon 4 and released the Juggernaut in turn, replacing the Professor after she put him in the Juggernauts place.

We went to the facility letting the crew in on what had happened and they had no problems with leading us down into the bottom chamber. There, in a tube filled with liquid oxygen that had some type of chemical that put the Juggernaut to sleep mixed in with it, was the professor floating in a peaceful induced sleep.

"I don't know how this could have possibly happened," the scientist said as he messed with buttons on a panel near the tube.

"That's Mystique for you," was Scott's reply. We heard someone else enter the room, and all turned to look. Logan was walked right for me. I smiled at him. I was glad he wasn't mad anymore. Of course, he had no right to be. From our little act, congress was singing a different tune about mutants now. He came up to me and put his arm over my shoulder, kissing my temple.

"Good job," he said looking up at Scott.

"That's his way of saying, you're right," I said wrapping my arms around his waist, resting my head on his shoulder.

"Don't push it." I grinned looking at Scoot who returned a grin. Bobby seemed genuinely freaked out at the sight of an affectionate Logan. He hadn't known me to be his girlfriend, let along knowing Logan even had a girlfriend. Logan looked at him, narrowing his eyes.

"What are you looking at?" Bobby quickly shifted his gaze away from us, but was still watching us out of the corner of his eye. The liquid was lowered and the Professor fell down on the ground. The glass was raised and Scott rushed in to help him.

After all was said and done, we climbed back on the jet, and headed for home. Even if it wasn't a home anymore, but on the bright side, I did want to build onto the mansion and make more rooms for incoming mutants. I was sure we were going to be losing a lot of them since this little incident. I couldn't say that I blamed them though. This made us look weak and unable to protect their children from harm. Mystique had screwed us bad. I was going to have to dip heavily into my funds to rebuild this mansion the way I wanted it, but this didn't bother me. Eventually, our funds would grow and we would live comfortably once more. I looked up at the children sitting around the jet, talking and laughing. I would build them a home. One suitable for all of them. I would do anything for these kids, my kids.

I pressed my body further into Logan's side looking up at him. He was sure to be touching me in some way every since he showed up. I put my hand on the side of his face smiling at him. He gave me a grin.

"I love you," I whispered. His grin grew and he kissed my lips gently.

"I love you," he whispered back then leaned his head back against the wall a content look on his face.

**Author's Note: I hope you guys enjoyed this one and I want to say I'm sorry again and I hope this made up for it. Much love readers! Aven91**


	21. Chapter 21

Everyone stood around looking at the rubble that was the mansion. Everyone except me. I was off by myself, up in a tree. I had managed to get away from Logan just by waving the paper in his face. He knew I was up to something and that I needed my privacy. I had grabbed a piece of wood that used to be part of the mansion and was using it as a flat surface to draw on. I had already started the new plans for the mansion. When I'd stop to think, I'd bite the end of the pencil then I would get back to drawing.

"Kat, what are you doing up there?" Charles asked turning his wheelchair towards me. I held up the pencil and shook it back and forth partly showing him what I was doing, partly telling him that he needed to be quiet so I could concentrate.

"Might as well leave her alone, she's up to something."

"Damn right I'm up to something," I said jumping down from the tree. "I'm drawing out the plans for the new mansion so these kids will have a roof over their head." I showed Charles the plans I had gotten so far. "It's mainly going to be just like the old mansion with some few additions." Charles looked them over and looked up at me.

"Are we going to be able to do this?" I smiled.

"Of course, Chuck. There's nothing we can't do. We're the X-Men!" Charles rubbed his forehead and sighed.

"That's not what I meant." The words had flown right passed me as I walked back to my tree and climbed up in it to continue drawing on the plans.

"Oh, and you may want to start clearing the rubble and salvaging as much as possible. I'm going to be done with these in about an hour. Then I'm going to go and pick up some supplies." The kids had managed to find a phone book that was barely damaged in the explosion much to my surprise and they brought it to me so I could go through it and start making phone calls. I took one of the kid's cell phones and began making calls for garbage pick-up. The first couple I had called was more than willing to come for such a big job, but as soon as they found out that it was at Xavier's Mansion, they refused their service.

"Racists," I thought and called the next number. I got tired real quick asking how much they would charge first then tell them where they needed to come that I started saying if you don't want to be up at Xavier's Mansion, then hang up the phone, but they weren't helping innocent children get a new roof over their head. That really didn't seem to matter to them because they considered the children to be monsters and quickly hung up.

I was quickly running out of options as I just went down the line of numbers listed in the yellow pages. On the last number, they agreed quickly to come and help and even gave us a good deal on how much they would charge us. I wondered why they seemed so happy to oblige and wondered if they were mutants as well, but those thoughts were quickly pushed aside as I started looking up numbers for lumber yards.

After a few calls, I had found a lumber yard willing to sell to us. They even gave me a number I could call where I could rent some equipment until the mansion was rebuilt. Giving the phone a strange look as if it were the man's face I was looking at, I jumped down from the tree.

"What is it, Kat?" Charles asked as I stood next to him.

"That was just easier than I thought it was going to be. That's all." He grinned at me. I started helping clear away the rubble waiting for the garbage truck to show up. I was shocked when four garbage trucks and two flat bed trucks pulled up. Men jumped out greeting us with bright smiles. The man I had deemed the boss came over and shook hands with Charles and I.

"Just show us what needs to be tossed and we'll do the rest he said." I pointed out the garbage pile and they immediately got to work. My suspicions were proven correct about some of them being mutants as one grew to an impossible size and picked up the whole garbage pile like it was a piece of trash and loaded it on the back of one of the trucks as they sorted through it and made it sit right. I walked over to the boss.

"Is this why you're helping us? Because one of your crew is a mutant?" He crossed his arms looking at me.

"Partly yes, but I also saw what you and those kids did to stop that mutant on the dam. If it weren't for you guys, a lot of people could be dead right now. We need you guys around. You're like superheroes." I grinned at the remark. Superheroes. Could they really consider us to be superheroes?

"Does that make you guys our sidekicks?" The boss man laughed at me. I yelled for Kurt to come over which he did happily. He was excited to see the giant mutant collecting all the trash and rubble throwing it on the trucks like it was nothing. That was when i realized that I had no money on me. I would have to visit my bank before I could pay anything to anyone. I hurried away and told Logan what was going on. He told me that he would take me. Good thing it was in New York City and wasn't too far away from us.

**Author's Note: This chapter was just a random chapter i decided to throw in. It leads up to something so don't worry more action is coming soon. Much love readers! Aven91 P.S. I wanted to update ASAP just to make up for the lack of updating on this story. :)**


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note: Chapter contains sexual content after the flashback. You have been warned.**

I sat on a sleeping bag inside of a tent. It was dark outside and the construction on the mansion was put on hold. I had a battery powered lantern sitting near me as I looked at the blue prints I had wrote out. Many of the children's parents came and took their children home much to our despair, but I figured they thought it was for the best. I couldn't really say anything about it either way. But since so many children went home to their parents, the children had enough room below to sleep on cots until their rooms were set up. I was left up top to protect what we had set up just in case protesters or worse came along and defaced our things.

I heard someone moving around the tent and unzip it. Logan slipped inside sitting down next to me. He looked over my shoulder at the blueprints. I flipped the page looking at the next floor of blueprints. Nothing was wrong with them, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. There was just so much that I had to put into this mansion. The countless dollars that would be drained. I didn't care, but this was a difficult project. I wasn't sure how long this was going to take, but I was going to work as fast as I could in order to build this place again. It hadn't taken me too long to do it the first time, but of course, I had more help. The children would be home for a couple days until they figured out whether or not they could go back to public school.

Logan grabbed the blueprints out of my hand and laid them down beside us. I looked at him. He wrapped his arms around me pulling me to him. I wrapped my arms around his waist resting my head on his shoulder. I had missed him so much. I missed his touch. I missed his lips. I missed his grin. I missed everything about him. If it were possible, I had missed him more on the six month absence than I did when we had been separated for years and years.

"How did it go with the Elders?" he asked. I looked up at him, then quickly looked away.

_-Flashback-_

_Hunting Wolf had taken me into the tribe that laid somewhere in the Midwest of the country. It was well hidden from the rest of civilization as they tended to keep to the traditional parts of the Native Americans. They all lived in Tee Pees that was set up in random parts of the village. Though we didn't travel to follow the herds of buffalo anymore, we still lived in Tee Pees. I wasn't really sure why. They could have easily made their houses in to Long Houses and would have been better off. They had harnessed the growing of their food and hunting only what they could get around them; squirrels, rabbits, and deer. They all still wore the traditional deer skin, beads, and feathers. _

_We walked through the village, people nodding their heads to acknowledge me. I hadn't seen these people in years and they still looked exactly the same as the day I had left. Everyone in this village had the same regeneration ability I had. Children ran around chasing each other with wooden toys in the shape of weapons. The teenagers were practicing archery getting ready to start their own hunts. Others stood by a river practicing throwing nets to catch bait fish so they could catch bigger fish. The women skinned deer getting them ready for the tanning racks. Other women dried and shaped animal organs into bowls, while others made clay bowls. Some of the men were carrying in firewood and others were acting as a Fletcher fixing up arrows for bows. Others were making stone arrowheads.  
_

_I was lead into the center Tee Pee where the Elders were sitting around a fire burning in the middle smoking a peace pipe. I sat on my knees as soon as I entered and patiently waited on them to speak to me. They quietly passed the pipe around puffing on the tip. I could smell the herb they were smoking all around me. I wondered if they knew that it was officially illegal to do such a thing in the real world. _

_"Do you really consider the outside world to be the real world, Burning Sky?" I shot a look at The Elder who said that. His name was Sleeping Bull. He was the Chieftain of the tribe and was always the first to speak to me. I lowered my eyes not really sure how to answer him._

_-End Flashback-_

"It went as good as you can expect," I said looking up at him. He leaned down and kissed me fully on the lips. He grabbed the back of my head, squeezing my hair. I moaned into his lips, immediately knowing what he was after. He pushed me back on the sleeping bag then reached over and turned off the lantern. He positioned himself on top of me. He lowered his head and started kissing the inside of my neck. I leaned my head back raking my nails on his back gently. I felt him tense on top of me at that actions as his need pressed against me.

He quickly removed my shirt, throwing it to the other side of the tent then got back to kissing my neck. I let out a heated sigh as his stubble ticked my shoulder. Not wanting to worry about unhooking my bra, he slid his claws out and cut the bra off my by cutting the middle of it. I giggled as he pushed it off my shoulders. I sat up so he could take it off and threw it in the same direction as my shirt. He lowered himself to my breasts and began sucking my nipples. I arched my back moving my fingers through his hair.

I started pulling at his shirt and he sat up letting me pull it off and I tossed it to the side. I ran my hands down his chests leaving small kisses in their wake. I heard his breath shudder. He pushed me back down on the sleeping bag and started unbuttoning my pants. He pulled them down with my underwear and I returned the favor to him. He pushed me on my back once more spreading my legs out.

He slid into my slowly making me moan his name. It had been so long since I had this that it made me ache. He pressed his lips against mine as he moved over top of me slowly. I whimpered below him. As I grew closer and closer to my climax, he started moving faster and faster. I dug my nails into his back making him groan. I lifted myself up and started biting at his neck. This had seemed to send him over the edge as he started to move roughly over me. I began chanting his name as my climax hit. He slowed down letting me ride it out.

He pulled me up turning me around and bent me over pushing into me again. He grabbed my hips to keep me still as he moved in and out quickly. He started grunting as he started reaching his climax. With one final thrust he spilled himself within me. He was gripping my hips so tight I was wondering if they were going to leave bruises. We laid down in the sleeping bag holding each other. I grinned looking up at him.

"I'm just going to say that's your way of saying, "I missed you"," I said looking up at him. He gave me a flat looked then kissed me lips gently. We were soon asleep.


	23. Chapter 23

Days seemed to pass quickly as I got everything together to build the mansion back the way it was only better. People came and went with supplies helping us in any way they could. Like we needed it. I was alive during the Gold Rush in California. I had opened my own gold mine under a man's name so I could collect gold. I hit pay dirt as pounds upon pounds was dragged out day by day. Only about half of it had been used by this time even with building the mansion. I knew since everyone was so crazy about it, it would be a collector's item at least within the next one hundred years. Little did I know that gold would play a major role in the world of today.

Little by little, the mansion came together. The children, still not being able to go back to school yet, was underground being home schooled. I was sure they would prefer to be on the surface helping me. They were your typical teenagers where school was boring and awful. I grinned at the though. Children hadn't changed a bit over the years. School was a prison to them. Nothing more. Nothing less. I'm glad I never had to go. I was "home schooled". I stood next to a table saw marking a piece of ply wood where it needed to be cut. I was so concentrated on making a straight line, that I didn't hear Hank walk up behind me. As soon as he made a noise to start talking, I jumped out of my skin and threw the carpenter's pencil across the lawn. I turned around staring at him with deranged eyes.

"That was just mean," I said stepping around the table saw trying to find the carpenter's pencil.

"I apologize, I was just wanting to ask you a question." I found the pencil and walked back around to finish marking the board once more.

"Sure go ahead."

"What Native American tribe were you born into?" I paused what I was doing looking back at him.

_Flashback:_

_"You have slipped into the world of turmoil, Burning Sky. You have seen the hatred first hand. Experienced the darkness that is the world today. People steal and rape and murder as if they no longer care of the needs of others. People have become rabid wolves and should be treated as such. The world must be cleansed of this evil so that our people can rise again and rule the plains." Sleeping Bull took a puff off his peace pipe and handed it to me. Knowing it would insult him to turn it down, I took a puff. "Don't you agree, Burning Sky?" _

_"There is still some good in the world yet, Sleeping Bull. Good that needs to be preserved for hope of it conquering this known evil."_

_"We have waited long enough!" another Elder argued. I looked at him. He was an older man, but still younger looking the Sleeping Bull. His name was Soaring Eagle. He was very flighty and majestic living up to his name, though sometimes he liked to rush things too much._

_"What good have you seen that has not been tainted by the darkness?" Sleeping Bull said with tired eyes. "For I see nothing but darkness in the world. Surely you don't mean Logan. That man has been tainted so much by the darkness only a flicker of light remains."_

_"But isn't it that light we are trying to preserve? Logan fights the darkness and conquers it every day. Not to mention the people I live with in the world outside. The X-Men. They fight..." She was interrupted. _

_"They are just like Logan. Each of them never truly excepting their fates. They fight to fit in when they should fight to stand." I took another draw of the peace pipe as my thoughts started to swim. _

_"As long as they're is still hope, we cannot give up on them. They will learn," I pleaded. Sleeping Bull pondered this for quite some time taking puffs off his pipe. He stared at the fire in front of us as he sorted through his thoughts. _

_"Very well, Burning Sky. We will wait a little longer." I took a deep breath and let it out. I had bought them more time. But how much wasn't up to me._

_End Flashback_

"Apache Tribe. It's what you people call it anyways." Beast seemed more than intrigued.

"Really? That's powerful tribe. Known for it's warriors right?" I nodded.

"Well, I'm kind of sort of maybe an Apache. I'm kind of a branch off Apache. Na'ishan is what we were called. It means Plains Apache as the regular Apache's were farther south. We mainly resided around what is Colorado today." Beast rubbed his hand. He was more of a scientist, not a historian. I wondered what suddenly brought this on. He wandered away from me after that pondering my words mumbling this to himself. I shrugged it off and got back to work.

I cut the boards first then started carrying them to the mansion to be put in place. The day was hot with a cool breeze running through the trees. It was the perfect day to be working outside. If only the kids could come out and enjoy this as well. It broke my heart knowing what was to come.

**Author's Note:Yep, you caught me. A little down time in the story means weaving in the plot and the climax of the story. Don't worry, it's probably not ending any time soon. I want more than thirty chapters on this story so keep that in mind. Uhm... yeah... so this means something is getting ready to happen... I'm working up to that... I'm just wanting her to have a flashback to hint to you guys that something is going to happen. Something big... Yeah... So bye... Reviews please! Much love, Readers! Aven91**

**PS Sorry for the dragging on and on and on in the chapters. Don't worry action is soon coming up. :))))) Okay bye for sure this time...**


	24. Chapter 24

It seemed to take forever to get everything in order for the new mansion to be built. I was glad to see it done. The children more so than me. They were getting a little too antsy to be sitting underground day after day. Fortunately for them, they were allowed back into school under the circumstance that they don't use their power. Jean, because of her power, wasn't allowed to make an A on anything for fear of someone calling her out on her power. She didn't need to use her power to make her grades. She was smart all on her own.

Anytime something went awry in that school, it was the mutant's fault immediately The children came home each day complaining about something that the Brotherhood had done to frame them. Each day, it seemed that they were getting in trouble for something I knew they didn't do. This irked me greatly and I decided to take matters into my own hands. I decided to go directly to the source. I knew Eric was the leader of the leader of the Brotherhood. He would get those boys of their backs for sure. It was good to have friends in my opinion even if they weren't on your side anymore.

Eric and I had an interesting relationship. Like Charles and I we were close friends. Eric and I, however, were closer. We shared the same ideals of the world and its corruptness but he became what he so greatly hated for so long. He and I both knew we would eventually break out into a war, but I knew we weren't going to be the ones to start it until he changed. I wasn't sure when it started happening because it happened a little at a time. First, his attitude started to change towards Charles and me. Then his attitude started changing towards our views. One day, a huge fight broke out and Eric left us. Shortly after that, I left too in search of nothing in particular, but if I found it, I would know it.

But I never did.

I took a car knowing exactly where to find Eric and his little band of nobodies. And yes, that included Sabretooth. As much as I didn't want to see that man, it was a risk I was willing to take for the children.

I got in the car. I drove away not letting anyone know where I was going knowing that they would try to stop me. Charles, I suspected, already knew what I was planning to do. Hopefully he wouldn't send anyone to stop me. It was the last thing I needed right now. Part of me knew he wouldn't since I was the only person who was still able to talk a little sense into Eric.

A full day's ride later, I was in front of the metal compound where Eric stayed. The compound reminded me of a bio-dome. Different tunnels led to different domes of the compound. In the center was a large dome that seemed to the the control room of all the other smaller ones. The whole compound sat in the middle of a vast forest that was more than difficult to get to. All of me was nervous about this. I wasn't sure who I was going to encounter first, but I knew they all knew that I was there. I was just hoping Eric wasn't going to send out Sabretooth to meet me. He knew better than that. One of us would die and it was most likely going to be me. The only thing that would protect me was my uncontrollable rage that sent me into overdrive. Eric wouldn't want that, I was sure.

Getting out of the car, I took a long breath of the fresh air. I had always loved the wilderness. It always seemed to calm me at the stillness of the land. I walked down to the compound straight for the front door. Large metal doors began to slide open for me before I had even arrived at the doors. They knew I was there for sure now. I entered slowly not really sure what to expect out of this.

I entered the compound keeping a sharp eye out for anything suspicious. But who was I kidding, this whole place looked suspicious. The hallways were dark. Dim lights seemed to lead me to where I needed to go. There was no one around. No maintenance. No one to run the machinery. This whole place seemed to run by itself. I wondered how he managed to do this. Hallway after hallway it seemed to me that these lights were just sending me in circles. Suddenly, there was movement all around me. I stopped watching my surroundings waiting for anything and everything. I prayed it wasn't Sabretooth.

Before I could even blink, the floor around me came up and made bars around me. I grabbed them trying to get out before they got to close together, but I didn't have enough time. I sat back and crossed my arms. I wasn't expecting this. Someone came out of the shadows. The first thing I noticed was his trench coat. The second thing I noticed was his eyes. They weren't like any eyes I had ever seen before. The third thing I noticed was his cocky grin.

"Look at what the cat dragged in," he said in a thick Cajun accent. I rolled my eyes.

"I've heard that sarcastic remark one too many times." His grin only grew as he came up to my new cage.

"I guess you would like to see the boss now wouldn't you?"

"Gee is it that obvious?" He chuckled.

"Good, because he's wanting to see you as well."


	25. Chapter 25

I was taken to an even bigger cage with a bed, toilet, and an annoying little drip from an unseen pipe somewhere near me. I sat down on the bed cross legged and crossed my arms. I took a deep breath closing my eyes. I listened to the drip. That annoying little drip, drip, drip that seemed right in my ear. It wouldn't have suprised me if Eric didn't put me in this cell deliberatly just to piss me off. He knew I meant no harm. He should've at least caught onto that since I actually let him know I was there before coming in. If I was after something then I would have snuck in without anyone actually knowing. Except maybe Sabretooth with his heightened sense of smell, but that was besides the point.

I listened carefully to where that drip was coming from, concentrating knowing it was the only other defense. My fire wasn't going to do much good in this place. Sure, I could melt the bars and make a quick escape, but I wasn't here for that. I was here to negotiate terms with Eric. He needed to call off his little punks because unlike them, my children were actually wanting people to think they weren't evil spawns of Satan here to kill off all the human race with their special powers. Not to mention it was beginning to effect their grades and because their grades were slipping, they had to partake in some of Logan's training which was something they didn't enjoy in the least. They had enough of their plates as it was. They didn't need to worry about the Brotherhood as well.

I could feel my lip start to twitch unvolintary as the drip, drip, drip seemed to get louder and louder until it was loud crashes in my ears. I couldn't stand it anymore. It was starting to make me have to pee and I wasn't about to use the toilet in this cell. For crying out loud there wasn't any privacy. What if someone suddenly came around the corner and seen me in all of my glory peeing in a bucket trying to be a toilet? I wasn't going to be caught with my pants down, literally. It seemed like hours before I heard another sound that wasn't the annoying drips. It sounded like footsteps. Heavy footsteps. Logic told me that heavy footsteps belonged to a heavy guy. That heavy guy was most likely Sabretooth sent to interrogate me. It was pretty obvious I was here on a personal visit so why couldn't the man I wanted to see come to see me.

The man that came around the corner, much to my relief, was not Sabretooth. He stood a good six foot five with dark hair. His muscles were as big as my easy. He opened the cell door, bending as he came in to avoid a concusion. Part of me wondered if he would've broken the top of it. He seemed powerful enough. I was too focused on the man before me to notice that he was holding a tray filled with food. It was truly a meal fit for a king. The man seemed less than amused to be bringing me this. I could only imagine why.

"The boss will be with you shortly. He had to take care of something before he comes to see you."

"And by taking care of something, you mean Sabretooth." He sat the tray down on the bed beside me carefully. He didn't have to say anything to let me know that it was exactly what it was. Sabretooth knew I was here and he was probably wanting to come and see me for his own little personal visit. I knew that Eric wouldn't allow him near me for fear of losing either one of us. I was too valued as a friend, Sabretooth as a soldier. The man turned to walk out of the cell, but I stopped him.

"I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass kind of prisoner, but I need to tell you that you have a leak."

"You're not a prisoner," he said turning back to me.

"If I'm not a prisoner, I would hate to see how you handle your prisoners." The man grinned.

"We don't take prisoners." I swallowed a lump in my throat that had been working its way up for quite some time now. I wasn't sure who they actually took as prisoners, but I was glad I wasn't one.

Yet...

I picked up the tray and started to eat slowly watching out of the cell expecting someone else to show up that wasn't Eric. I needed to see him more than anything, but Sabretooth was probably giving him a hard way to go. It wouldn't surprise me, he was a very difficult man. What he lacked in smarts, he made up for in sheer force. I was sure Eric was having a more than a few problems with him. Unsure of when he was going to be able to show up, I laid down on the bed and decided to sleep until he got there. If he ever showed up.


	26. Chapter 26

Flashback:

I sat on the edge of the river with my bare feet in the water. I pushed a few rocks over startling the creatures hiding underneath. They swam away quickly hiding under a rock a few inches away only to have their hiding place revealed with one swift movement of my foot. Within a minute, all the rocks around my feet had been pushed away leaving only the muddy bottom of the river side. I lifted my feet up out of the water a few times and splashed them back in. The water that splashed up I suspended in the air and started moving it into different shapes in front of my eyes then dropped it back into the river.

I could feel the motion of the river for miles. Feeling its twists and turns. The movement of all the creatures down to the smallest bacteria. The feeling of the river slamming against rocks slowly washing them away with each passing second. I could feel the falls of the water as it fell over a waterfall. I could feel the currents changing just as quickly as the winds around me. That was when I started concentrating on the wind. I could feel it running through the trees. It felt so soft and calm. I could feel it running across the bark. I could feel it pushing its way around rocks, animals, buildings, and the people of the village. I could smell the changes of the wind as it switch direction. The flowers, the smoke from the fires of the village.

Then I focused on the fires in the village. I could feel the heat. The destructive force of it. I could feel it eating away at the wood used to fuel it slowly. I could feel it crackle. Feel it smolder. Feel it as it died away to embers soon to return the ash into the earth.

Then I focused on the earth. I could feel the earthworms, moles, and rabbits burrow their way through the earth building their homes and looking for their next meal. I could feel the movement of everything moving across the surface. All I had to do was concentrate. Even to this day, it amazed me that I could bend these things to my will.

A scream filled the air.

End Flashback

I was jerked out of sleep as someone opened my cell door. It took me a few moments to gather my thoughts and senses. The dream had clouded my mind immensly. Once my vision had come back to me I realized that it was the same man that had been there when I was first captured. He carried a couple bottles of water for me to drink. Perfect timing, my throat was dry. I took the bottled water without question and drank one down without even taking a breath.

"How long have I been here?" I asked as he pulled in a chair.

"About six hours, chere." He pulled out a deck of cards and began shufling them.

"What is your name?" I asked standing from the bed. I had grown stiff in the long hours I had waited for an audience with Eric. I began to stretch my limbs out one by one.

"Gambit." I chuckled sitting back down on the bed. For some reason, I knew that was the perfect name for him.

"Want to play five card draw?" Gambit stopped shuffling his cards for a split second a grin plastered across his lips. He gave me an amused look.

"I'm sorry, Chere," he said patting the cards in his hand, "I only play for money." I grinned reaching in my pocket and pulled out a wad of cash.

"What a coincidence, so do I." We gave each other menacing grins. What better way to pass the time than to make a couple extra bucks?

He left the cell quickly not even bothering to close the cell behind him. I wondered if he had simply forgotten to close the door or I really wasn't a prisoner here. He soon returned with a small folding table and sat it up in the middle of the cell. It was set up to where the bed would be my chair, and the chair he had brought in would be his. I sat down on my designated chair and sat my money down beside me. I counted through it quickly as he counted through his. I only had a hundred and fifty dollars on me in various bills, but hopefully I could double that by the time Eric showed up. I wasn't sure what was taking him so long, but I was seriously beginning to believe I was indeed a prisoner here.

Gambit dealt out the cards and I picked them up, fanning them out in my hand to see what I had. I had two queens so far. It seemed promising so I raised the bet a little. Gambit matched it and raised me still. I watched his face carefully waiting to see any changed so I could figure out when he was bluffing or not. It would only be a matter of time before I had him all figured out and would be winning all the money.

I hoped.

I threw out the three cards and got three new ones. I didn't get anything more leaving me with just two queens. Gambit took three cards as well and I studied him close memorizing his hand gestures and facial twitches, all of his movements. Poker is not a game of skill, or even luck. It was a game of reading people. Calling them out on their bluffs. You learn their moves, you never lose. You know when to fold when they have a good hand, and you know when to raise the bet when they have a bad hand. It's all about the other player. Gambit knew this and was watching me just as much as I was watching him.

We laid out the cards for each of us to see. He had a pair of jacks while I had a pair of queens. I won this round. I knew he was just trying to figure me out so he wouldn't be betting strong for a while. This was going to be interesting.


	27. Chapter 27

Days seemed to pass as I waited for any sign of Eric. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on anymore. They told me I wasn't a prisoner, but I was being held within the confines in a cell made of metal and I wasn't allowed to leave unless escorted by one of my wardens which was either Gambit or Colossus. They watched every single one of my movements wondering if I was going to attack.

"When can I see Eric? I've been here for days and he hasn't even sent as much as a message my way." Gambit scratched the back of his head.

"He is a little indisposed at the moment, Chere. He will be with you as soon as he can be." I narrowed my eyes at him. Something didn't seem right somewhere. Why would he be indisposed like this for so long?

"Is he well?"

"Yes, quite well. Stop asking questions." We were still playing the same game of poker as we were days ago. He was a good player just like I was. He had skill I hadn't seen in a really long time. He could've been just as good as me easily. I was beyond impressed with his skills as a poker player. I asked often of Eric, but they would always just tell me the same thing every time. He was indisposed. Something was wrong and I wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but something was up none the less. I had decided that I was going to be sneaking away soon to find out what was happening with Eric that he was avoiding me like this. If he was still the Eric I once knew, then he would've been the one to meet me, not Gambit.

I claimed to be tired and wanted to take a nap so I laid back on my cot and closed my eyes. I was going let my spirit leave my body and I would roam the halls until I found something of use to me information wise. I hoped Eric was okay. He maybe had a rough past with the X-Men, but he was still my friend, I was still his friend. We put our differences aside so we could remain friends. It didn't matter whether or not he wanted a war and I tried everything in my power to hold of the war that was no doubt going to happen between mutants and humans. I wasn't trying to start one like Eric was.

I breathed in and out slowly just as the Elders had told me over and over. I needed to relax. I needed not to think of what I was going to be doing in this state. No thoughts whatsoever needed to pass through my brain at any given time or else the process would have to be started all over again. None of the stresses of everyday life needed to be on my mind.

Nothing.

Drip.

Quiet.

Drip.

Calm.

Drip.

Nothing.

Easier said than done when there's a constant drip, drip, drip of a still leaky pipe somewhere near me. I had gotten so used to it being there that I had forgotten it was even there. But now that I wasn't supposed to let anything irk me, or distract me, or anything of any sorts, it was there. The constant drip, drip, drip. I didn't even notice the damned thing when I was going to sleep anymore. But now, here I was meditating and there it was... Drip, drip, drip. Drip. Drip... DRIP! I shot up out of bed, nearly making Colossus fall out of his chair.

"You need to fix that damned leak!" I yelled looking at him. "It's always there dripping right in my damn ear! It's all I hear all the time! Fix the fucking thing!" He blinked a few times wondering why I had that sudden outburst. He stood from his chair and nodded to me, still staring at me with those same eyes. Those eyes that didn't match him at all. Anyone who looked at him was intimidated by his size alone, then when he used his mutant abilities to become a full metal human being, everyone was terrified, but his eyes were different. They showed a gentle, kind man. I wondered why such a man would end up fighting for Eric. Someone like him would have been perfect for the X-Men. The way he looked at me, it was almost as if I hurt his feelings.

I didn't hear much after that. My ears rang from where I had screamed so loud. Your voice definatly carried more in a metal building. But at least I didn't hear that drip. I leaned back on the bed once more deciding that it was time to try this out once again. I took slow breaths. Deep breaths at first, then shallowed them out as time passed. I started by relaxing my toes. Then my feet. Then my ankles. Each time just moving up a joint. Then kept going until I relaxed my head. I did this again and again until I was so relaxed, I was floating on a cloud.

By this point, I was ready. Ready to let my spirit leave my body. I had to open my eyes, but not my physical eyes, my soul's eyes. They flitted up slowly and I saw the ceiling. Slowly, I sat up and looked down on the bed. My body was still laying there and I smiled. Once more, I had accomplished this. It was always a personal feat that I did this. I always tried to break my record time, without actually trying to break it since I wasn't allowed to think of anything... it's a lot easier than it seems.

I stood up and walked to the door getting ready to pass into the hallway, but something stopped me. I couldn't get out. It was just like there was a window that was there. That was strange. Why couldn't I pass through? It was really easy when you were in spirit form since you were a spirit. I had done it many times before and it was the easiest thing to do. I pressed my face against this window and tried to see if I could see anything, but I didn't see anything at all.

I gave up quickly knowing that I wasn't going to anything in this state. I walked back to my body and laid down and started to do the opposite of what I did to get into this state. Once I was back, I stood up again and walked around biting my nail to the point that I bled. This made me nervous. This was when I realized that I was trapped. This was when I realized that I was a prisoner. This was when I realized that I wasn't free to do what I pleased, leave when I pleased. This was when I realized what those drips were. That wasn't a leak. That was a Grounder. Something that rendered my spiritual power useless.

Apache Tears if I didn't know any better. People nowadays thought of them as beautiful stones that had healing powers and brought luck and all that New Age mumbo jumbo, but in all reality, it kept my spirit here. Would let me leave this room. It was probably dripping somewhere right behind the walls putting a protective circle around the cell I was staying in keeping me Grounded. It was a very powerful magic. And since I couldn't see it or touch it, I couldn't control it. I couldn't help myself out of this situation. I was trapped. They thought they could keep me here against my will.

They were going to realize real soon, that it was the wrong move to make.


	28. Chapter 28

Little panels slid back from the ceiling and little gun turrets slid down with laser sights to fixate on anything with a natural body heat. They moved around quickly trying to find us and as soon as they did, I knew we were in for it. I wasn't sure what their range was, but by the looks of it, we were took close to all of them as they were simply just everywhere. Eric tried using his powers to bend the barrels of the guns or bring apart some of the wiring, but he was just too weak to do something like that. Whatever they had him hooked to was a terrible device. I should've destroyed it completely. Such a device should've never even been thought of.

I used my pwers to start destroying the guns, but they just kept coming. Eric was too weak to run. I tried picking him up, but it was all dead weight. I was starting to get tired. I had used too much of my powers and going into my spirit form just took too much out of me still. We kept moving, but we kept moving slower and slower. There was just so much energy being wasted on our escape. We had only moved about fifty feet once I started getting dizzy. The first gun had hit Eric in the back. He screamed in pain and fell to his knees.

"Eric, no! We have to keep moving!" I yelled blasting the gun that had shot him. I forced him back to his feet and started walking again, but we only made it a couple steps before Eric fell again. I tried pulling him up, but he wasn't moving. I screamed his name as I got shot in the chest. I fell to my knees looking up at the gun that had shot me. I hit it with a fireball destroying it. I forced myself back up and reached for Eric. I started draggin him across the floor.

Where was Gambit and Colossus? Wherever they were I hoped they were fairing better than us. This was terrible. I was so weak. How could I be so stupid? Charles hadn't tried to contact me yet, so I shoudl've know he was being blocked somehow. I guess I figured the complex was built out of the same material as Eric's helmet. I had to get out of here. I had to get out of here now. I had to get us out.

Another shot to the back and I turned to blast it. This kept going on and before I had gotten out, I had been shot so many times, I didn't know how many times it was. The front doors were sealed shut, but that didn't stop me. I put my hands on the door and heated my hands. I focused all I could on the heat and tried not to think of the pain searing through my body. Some of the wounds were almost healed, but some were just pouring the blood. The door began to melt away slowly. This was taking way too much out of me. I couldn't take this for much longer.

A hole just the right size to get out had finally formed and I went and grabbed Eric. I pulled him outside. I tried to drag him farther, but I just couldn't do anymore. I had managed to pull us to safety, which was my goal, but it wasn't going to do us much good if I killed myself. I fell on my back.

"Kat," Eric whispered moving. I couldn't answer him. I had nothing left. I just had to rest. Get my stregnth back up. I heard Eric move. He tried to get up, but he fell back beside me. "Kat." I opened my eyes as much as I could, but it wasn't much. I could see the blurry outline of my eyelashes blocking my view. "Charles..." I heard him whispered. "Charles. It's bad." Then all went dark. I knew I wasn't dead. You can't have nightmares when you're dead.

I dreamt of chaos. Fire. Eartquakes. Tornadoes. Floods. Death. People I loved, pleople I cared for dead and bloody around me. The landscape was a barren wasteland. Trees were charred and smoking. And in the middle of it was me. But it wasn't me. I couldn't explain it, but whoever that was had stolen my body. They had taken my identity and made it their own right down to the last molecule. But there was something off about them. Something destructive. Something evil. Something that I could never be.

I shot up out of bed gasping for air. I felt something on my shoulders pushing me down and the first thing that popped into my head was to defend myself so that's what I did. I wall of fire surrounded me and kept me safe. I couldn't see anything. Everything was such a blur. There was a smell, a familiar smell, but part of me was still in that dream. That horrific dream that couldn't possibly come true. I heard a voice, a voice that pulled me out of everything. The fire fell instantly as everything came into focus instantly.

"Logan?" I scanned the room until I found him in the corner putting out a fire on his sleeve. I jumped from the bed ripping out IVs and an oxygen tube and ran into his arms. He held me against him tightly, but the sense of sheer joy left my body and I pushed him away from me.

"How long was I gone?" I asked crossing my arms. Logan, at first, didn't want to tell me. Which in turn told me I had been gone for a really long time.

"Almost a month." I started smacking him on the arms and shoulders.

"You mean to tell me I have been missing for nearly a month and you haven't even came looking for me? It's not like you could've picked up my scent or anything!"

"I lost your scent as soon as we left the property. It was almost like you vanished. There was no finding you because Charles couldn't find you. What happened? Where were you?" I thought about this for a moment.

"Honestly? I couldn't even tell you." I tried to think of something to say to him.

"Why did you go?"

"I was going to try to call off Eric's little brats since the children were so miserable at school. I was there for a long time and Eric never came. I tried to find him in my spirit form, but someone trapped me inside. So I forced my way through and something had trapped Eric on a gurney and they were sucking his powers out of him and using them against me. I don't know what they were after, but something is telling me, it was me." Logan thought about this. "Where's Eric?"


	29. Chapter 29

Eric wasn't on life support, but he wasn't waking up. He wasn't responding to anything. He was in perfect health, there wasn't any perminent damage, but considering his age, it was taking a while to heal. I stood by his bed staring down at him.

"Did he tell you anything?" I asked looking at Charles. Charles shook his head. "Did you read his mind?" He shook his head again.

"With him being like this, I don't know what I'll find. I may find something I don't want to know about."

"What if you pick up something to do with us?" Logan asked crossing his arms.

"Now that would take all the fun out of it," I said looking up at him. Logan rolled his eyes. I turned my attention back to Charles. "If you don't do it now, it may be too late." Charles stared at me. I walked over to him and knelt down in front of him offering to him to read my mind. He needed to see what I seen, needed to know what I knew. He put his hands on the sides of my head and closed his eyes. I felt him inside poking around for the experiences I had while I was gone.

I could see flashes of the memories. Flashes of faces. Everything that had happened to me in the passed month flashed in front of my eyes within seconds. Charles sat back in his chair crossing his fingers together in front of his face thinking about what that could've meant.

"Are they after you?" Charles asked looking ta me. I shrugged.

"I'm not sure, but they knew how to keep me locked in. I would say they were just for that. But they could've been after Eric and trapped me in there so I couldn't help him. Gambit and Colossus just up and disappeared."

"What about Sabretooth?" Logan asked standing behind me.

"Eric sent him away when he found out I was coming. He's not willing to lose him. It's odd though. Something didn't feel right in there the entire time I was in there. I can't really explain it, but I didn't like it. Charles, you're going to have to put chivalry aside and read his mind. He can tell you more than I can. We need to know who it was so we can prepare ourselves for the worst case scenerio. Eric can get mad all he wants."

Charles knew I was right. This could very well be a matter of life and death. It didn't matter who they were coming after, but it was clear that they were trying really hard to keep us there. Who knew where Colossus and Gambit disappeared to. Maybe they had been captured. Maybe they had been killed. I had seen Colossus just moments before I broke out of my cell. I knew they were being controlled mechanically, but that didn't mean anything. Maybe after we escaped, they had used up their purpose. Or they had went to whoever had been controlling them.

Too many possibilities.

"Whatever is going on, we need to figure it out. Whoever this was knew what they were after and was very good at covering their tracks. They were good enough to trap me and Eric both. That isn't an easy thing to accomplish. But they had managed to use Eric's powers. Could you imagine what would happen if they got my powers? Or yours? Not to mention half the children's powers."

"I understand what you're saying. I'll do it." Charles wheeled his way into position and put his hands on Eric's head like he did me and closed his eyes. It took a few minutes for Charles to go through the memories. Once he was done, he sat back. He put his hands together and took a deep breath. His eyes seemed troubled. He was squeezing his hands together so tight they were turning white. Something told me it wasn't good whatever it was that he found.

"Well?" Logan pushed.

"You're not going to like this, Kat. They're after you. They just have to be." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"How do you know? What did you see?"

"Your people." I wasn't sure what hit me first, but the last thing that hit me was confusion. Why would they be after me? It wasn't time for the cleansing yet. Even if it was, why would they try to hold me prisoner?

"Gambit and Colossus was being controlled by something mechanical. My people doesn't use that. They're strictly traditional. No technology. So whoever it is, got to my people. They're using my people against me." Panic suddenly flew through my body. My shaky hand covered my mouth. What had they done to my people? I looked up at Logan sheer terror in my eyes. "I have to go. I have to see if they're okay." I turned to walk out, but Logan stopped me.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Whoever this was, was able to find where your people are hiding and capture them. They'll expect you to go there. They'll be waiting."

"Good." I started walking out of the room again.

"I'm coming with you," Logan said following me. I wasn't about to argue. I knew he was right. I knew they were going to be there waiting on me. They went through a lot of trouble to trap me. They were going to go through a whole lot more to get me again. I could only guess at what they wanted me for. Most likely my powers. Sure I was thinking just a little too highly of myself, but with powers like mine, everyone would be after them. And if they had found a way to take the powers from mutants to use them against someone else, they were probably goin gto try to take my powers.

Not good.

Not good at all.


	30. Chapter 30

Logan and I were packed and ready to go within the hour. We were going to have to drive to where they were because I couldn't teleport yet. It was a part of the spiritual part of my powers. It was a power that I had turned down. I wasn't going to be there any longer than I needed to be. They didn't like my answer, but they had to deal with it. I knew where to find them if I needed to. I just never thought it would be under these circumstances.

I went into the hanger prepping the X-Jet for flight. As much as I didn't want to, Logan insisted we take it since it would be faster.

"Where are you going?" I heard Kurt asked as he appeared behind me.

"Out."

"You're always going out. Why couldn't you just stay?" I stopped and looked back at him. He was wearing the X-Men uniform. I shook my head no.

"You're not going, Kurt. It's not safe. I'm not sure what we're going to find or if we're even going to find anything. You need to stay here and keep this place safe just in case this is what they want me to do."

"Who?" I ran my fingers through my hair as the latch to the X-Jet opened up for me.

"I'm not really sure, Kurt. That's why we're going. We have to go so we can try to figure it out. Whoever it is can possibly be very dangerous." Kurt nodded and teleported off somewhere. I stepped onto the X-Jet stowing my pack away. I wasn't sure how long Logan and I was going to be gone so it wasn't going to hurt to be prepared. By the time I had my stuff stowed away; Logan was stepping onto the jet.

He put his stuff away and walked over to me. He put his hand on my shoulder and I went into his arms holding him against me.

"What if they've gotten to my people? I know they're hard to find, but it's not impossible. If you have the right type of technology you can find anybody anywhere on the planet."

"I'm sure they're all fine, but just to be safe, we're going to go check it out." I grinned looking up at him.

"They're not going to like that I've brought you along. Outsiders are strictly forbidden." He kissed my lips gently.

"I've never been one to follow the rules anyways." I rolled my eyes and made my way up to the front of the jet and started checking gauges and fuel. I gripped the back of the seat as a sudden thought crossed my mind. If, for whatever reason, the ones who did this to Eric and I were there, they could take me and I would never be seen again. They could drain so much of my power that it would kill me. And here I was being selfish and keeping something from Logan. I could never have the chance to tell him. I had known for years and years. I had to tell him.

"Logan," I whispered. He looked up to the front of the jet at me, and made his way up to me. "I have to tell you something. Something I've been keeping from you ever since we came back into each other's lives. I have to tell you because it's not fair to you." He narrowed his eyes. "In the early sixties, I met Charles and Eric. They became very close to me. Eric and I… we had a thing though I knew it would never last because eventually, time would take care of it, but that didn't stop us from acting the way couples do. I became pregnant." Logan just stared at me. No emotion was showing on his face. I was almost too afraid to continue on. I could feel my hands trembling so I squeezed them together.

"Five months into the pregnancy, I lost the baby. Charles went and checked it out and he told me that I was damaged. It looked like there were pieces of me missing and I couldn't carry a baby. The only thing I could think of was when Sabretooth tried to kill me and took our baby. For some reason, my regenerative powers couldn't heal me. The one thing that I would actually want in this world, I couldn't have because of Victor. I'm sorry I never told you, Logan. I just didn't know how. And now maybe we won't make it back so I thought I had to tell you so you wouldn't be left in the dark anymore." Tears stung my eyes. I felt I was going to break down and pass out right in front of him.

He put his hands on my shoulders and shook me gently trying to get my attention. I felt like I was in shock. I stopped and looked up at him.

"When was the last time Charles checked that out?"

"Just that one time."

"We'll have him check you again when we get back." I just stared at him.

"But what if…"

"We'll worry about that if we come to it. And since we're standing here confessing, I have something I need to confess." I nodded my head. "I technically have a daughter." I scoffed.

"How do you technically have a daughter?"

"You can thank Hydra for that."

"Wait, Hydra? You weren't…"

"No, trust me, no. They got ahold of my DNA and tried to make another super soldier like Captain America just with my abilities."

"But Captain America died." Logan sighed.

"No, he's still alive. Something happened with that super soldier serum S.H.I.E.L.D gave him. He was dying, but they put him into a cryogenic sleep until they could find a cure for him." I lowered my eyes. I had never gotten the chance to meet Captain America, but from what I seen on television, he was a very handsome man. For someone of his stature to be such a hero, it would have been an honor to have met him.

"Okay, what about your daughter?"

"She came after me, blaming me for what she was. They call her X-23. I tried to get her to come back with me, but she refused. She's still out there somewhere." I smiled at him.

"I want to meet her." Logan nodded.

"She'll like that just as much as your people will like me showing up."

"Well she is your daughter." He rolled his eyes. After that, we took off.


	31. Chapter 31

A couple hours later, we found a place to land. There was no way we'd be able to fly into the field that protected them from the outside world. We'd be blown out of the sky in a matter of minutes. I stepped off the jet and looked around at the forest. I wasn't expecting anything, but I was on edge. Everything that was happening was happening to me. If they knew how to entrap me, it's hard to tell what else they were capable of. If they somehow were able to find my people, they could be doing to them what they were trying to do to me.

Logan stepped next to me taking in a deep breath.

"Anything?" I asked. He shook his head no.

"Not that I can smell."

Cautiously, we pushed forward. We couldn't be sure who or what we would face in order to reach the village of my people. I prayed with all my might they were all alright. I knew they hid themselves for hundreds of years from the rest of the world and no one had been able to find them yet, but there was a first time for everything. Whoever this was, they knew what they were doing so maybe they were able to find my people.

My hands were clammy, my heart was thudding. It felt like I was getting ready to have a mental breakdown. I couldn't control the way I was feeling. This was the scariest moment of my life. Logan put his hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sure their okay. Now stop panicking." I looked up at Logan and gave a small smile. I really wish it was that easy to believe that. I just had a really bad feeling about this. Something was wrong. The forest was too quiet. It was the middle of spring. Where were all the little birds and animals frolicking about trying to find mates for the season? All I could hear were the bugs flying around. My people rarely hunted during the spring so the animals would have enough time to reproduce so there would be a never ending food source. The next generations always carried on.

An hour or so later of nothing but small talk, we finally reached the barrier. To the untrained eye, it looked like a hundred foot wall of rock that couldn't be climbed. Even if you touched it, you could feel the roughness of the earth under your fingertips.

I put my hands flat to where my thumbs were touching and moved them out chanting a phrase in my native language. As I chanted, I moved my hands outward. A bright light formed between my hands about nine feet tall. When the light disappeared, much to Logan's surprise there was a whole other world on the inside. It looked just like a forest. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. There was just no way this could be real, and he could believe a lot. I stepped through the portal and Logan stepped through with me. I turned and shut the portal the same way I opened it.

I turned around and took a deep breath. The air was so clean here. There was no pollution from the outside world. This place was untouched by technology of all kinds. No one even knew this place existed. All they knew was there was a giant mountain that was impossible to climb in the middle of nowhere.

Logan took a deep breath and looked at me with a worried look on his face.

"Something's wrong." I took off running without saying another word as Logan followed after me as fast as he could.

"Wind carry my feet," I whispered to myself, "May I be swift." The wind around me picked up as I started running faster. I had to get there, but I couldn't go too fast or Logan would lose me. I knew he could just follow my scent, but I wasn't sure what I was going to find and I may need back up.

I came to a clearing where my village sat in the middle. Smoke was rising from all of the teepees, a lot more than usual. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to react to this so I just stood there. Something was wrong. I was scared. My heart pounded in my ears. I could feel bile working its way up to the back of my throat. Logan stopped next to me and looked out over the clearing to the village. Only one thing could go through my mind at that point.

"The children."

I ran through the village calling for anyone. I opened the holes that served as doors in the teepees and no one was inside any of them. Tears began to sting my eyes as panic, fear, terror, and any other kind of emotions similar to those.

"Kat!" Logan called out from somewhere around the outskirts of the village. I ran to where he was and looked to where he was looking. I fell to my knees as tears started falling freely from my eyes. Before us were three piles of bodies that had been burned. One was for the children, the next for the women, the third was for the men. Everyone was dead.

Logan kneeled down next to me putting his hand on my shoulder. I just couldn't believe it. They were gone.

My people.

Gone.

Why? Who would do such a thing? They had never done anything to anyone. I leaned into Logan letting him wrap his arms around me. I began sobbing. Nothing was left. My family was gone. Even the Elders…

Wait.

"The Elders!" I jumped up and ran through the village until I got to the teepee the Elder's shared. It was bigger than all the rest, big enough to house all of them comfortably. I ran in, but they were gone. There was nothing. No blood, no signs of struggle… nothing.

I ran back to the burned bodies and started pulling them off one another trying to find the Elders. I knew it was impossible, but there was a little hope. I had to know for sure. Logan came up to me and tried to pull me off. I would never be able to forget the smell of burning flesh for the rest of my years on this earth. I pushed Logan away from me, but he wouldn't stop. He eventually grabbed me right off and wrapped his arms around me again.

"Why?" I screamed in his chest.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out." I looked up at him and gave him a small grin, but it soon faded.

"The Institute. If they knew where this place was, they sure as hell know where I am." Logan grabbed my hand and we started running. If it wasn't for Logan, I wouldn't have been able to make it to the jet a lot faster.


End file.
